Mauritania releases jailed 'blasphemy' blogger

France24 - AFP, 30 July 2019

A November 2017 decision by a Mauritanian appeals court to lessen Mkheitir's
sentence to a two-year jail term sparked protests in the conservative nation (AFP)

Nouakchott (AFP) - Mauritania has released a blogger who drew international attention after being accused of blasphemy, his lawyer and the campaign group RSF said Tuesday.

Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir, 36, had been initially sentenced to death but was then given a jail term on appeal.

He remained in detention despite having already served the sentence -- a situation that sparked a chorus of protest from rights groups.

"(He) was released yesterday from the place where he was under house arrest... (but) is not completely free in his movements," his attorney Fatimata Mbaye told AFP.

Mkheitir "is no longer in Nouakchott," the Mauritanian capital, Mbaye said, without giving further details.

His release came in the final days of the presidency of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who had previously argued that to free Mkheitir would endanger the blogger as well as the public.

Mkheitir was sentenced to death for blasphemy in December 2014 after he wrote a blog that challenged decisions taken by the Prophet Mohammed and his companions during holy wars in the seventh century.

He repented after being given that sentence, prompting an appeal court on November 2017 to downgrade the punishment to a two-year jail term -- a decision that sparked protests in the conservative Saharan nation.

His lawyers said he should have been released immediately, having already spent four years behind bars, but remained confined.

On June 20, Abdel Aziz, defended Mkheitir's continued detention, saying it was justified by "his personal security as well as the country's."

"We know that from the point of the view of the law, he should be freed, but for security reasons, we cannot place the life of more than four million Mauritanians at risk," he said.

In an open letter published the following day, 10 rights groups, including the media watchdog Reporters without Borders, called on Abdel Aziz to use his final weeks in office to end the "illegal detention".

Abdel Aziz and religious leaders then launched a process of "preparing national opinion" for Mkheitir's release, under which he formally repented again, on social media.

On Thursday, Abdel Aziz hands over the presidency to Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazouani, a former general and close ally, after serving a maximum two terms in office.

Ghazouani won presidential elections on June 22 with 52 percent of the vote, according to official figures disputed by the opposition.

Almost 36 million people trapped in modern day slavery: Global Slavery Index

The second annual Global Slavery Index (GSI) has shown that 35.8 million people are subject to modern day slavery - some 20 percent more worldwide than initially thought. The highest total of slaves was in India.

Deutsche Welle, 17 Nov 2014

The results of a survey published on Monday by anti-slavery campaign group Walk Free estimates that some 35.8 million people are currently trapped in modern day slavery.

In its second annual report, the 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI) said that due to new methods, some 20 percent more people are enslaved around the world that previously thought.

"There is an assumption that slavery is an issue from a bygone era. Or that it only exists in countries ravaged by war and poverty," said Andrew Forrest, chairman of the Australian-based Walk Free Foundation.

Widespread

Forced into in a life of cotton picking, cannabis growing, prostitution, fighting wars or cleaning up after the wealthy account for just some of the definitions of modern slavery across the 167 countries which were covered in the GSI report.

Debt bondage, forced marriage and the sale or exploitation of children, as well as human trafficking are also included in the foundation's interpretation of modern slavery.

The report also showed that modern slavery contributed to the production of at least 12 goods from 58 countries.

Social norm

According to the Index, the biggest offender, with the highest proportion of its population enslaved, remains the West African nation of Mauritania. Despite Mauritania's anti-slavery legislation, it is rarely enforced and the slavery of black Moors by Berber Arabs is an entrenched part of society.

Following Mauritania in second place was Uzbekistan where, every autumn, the government forces over one million people, including children, to harvest cotton.

The highest number of total slaves was found in India where an estimated 14.29 million people live a life of slavery. The Index said, however, that India had recently taken important steps to combat the problem by strengthening its criminal justice framework through legislative amendments and increasing the number of its anti-human-trafficking police units.

'Appalling situations'

At the opposite end of the scale, the GSI report also showed that the countries doing the most to combat the problem were the Netherlands, Sweden, the US, Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, the UK, Georgia, and Austria.

Despite being at the bottom of the list, Europe still has 566,000 people involved in forms of modern slavery. For example, people are trafficked into Ireland to grow cannabis, or forced into begging in France.

"These findings show that modern slavery exists in every country. We are all responsible for the most appalling situations where modern slavery exists and the desperate misery it brings upon our fellow human beings," said Forrest.

ksb/se (AFP, 2014 Global Slavery Index)

Mauritania stages peaceful election despite opposition boycott

Google – AFP, Hademine Ould Sadi (AFP) , 23 November 2013

A woman casts her vote at the Ksar polling station in Nouakchott on

November 23, 2013 (AFP, Mohamed Ould Elhadj)

Nouakchott — Mauritanians voted Saturday in nationwide elections overshadowed by a widespread boycott of opposition parties, with all eyes on the performance of an Islamist party allowed to take part for the first time.

The mainly-Muslim republic, a former French colony on the west coast of the Sahara desert, is seen as strategically important in the fight against Al-Qaeda-linked groups within its own borders, as well as in neighbouring Mali and across Africa's Sahel region.

"I think these elections today are a victory for democracy in my country," President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said after visiting his local polling station in Nouakchott.

Residents queue up to vote outside the

 Ksar polling station in Nouakchott on

 November 23, 2013 (AFP, Mohamed

Ould Elhadj)

Around a third of Mauritania's 3.4 million people are eligible to vote in the first parliamentary and local polls since 2006, a test of strength for Abdel Aziz five years after he came to power in a coup and four years after he won a widely contested presidential vote.

His Union for the Republic (UPR) is expected to retain power and opinion is divided over whether the main Islamist party Tewassoul, only legalised in 2007, will provide a serious challenge to the favourites or sink back into obscurity following the election.

Some 1,500 candidates from 74 parties representing the administration and the so-called "moderate" opposition are registered to vie for 147 seats in parliament and the leadership of 218 local councils dotted across the shifting sands of the vast nation.

Voting began on time at 7:00 am (0700 GMT) and closed 12 hours later, with no major incidents reported and turnout appearing to be strong in Nouakchott, according to an AFP correspondent visiting several polling stations.

The process of voting appeared more complicated and arduous than had been expected, however, and long queues began to build up outside polling stations in the capital soon after they opened.

Mauritania's president Mohamed Ould

 Abdel Aziz (left) with Senegalese

counterpart Macky Sall at Dakar airport on

September 10, 2013 (AFP/File, Seyllou)

Voters, most of whom are illiterate, faced the difficult task of finding the symbol for their party among several electoral lists covering parliamentary and council seats.

Towards the end of the morning many stations were tripling the number of booths available for casting ballots.

"I came in the early morning, I have just voted. There was a long wait but I have done my duty," said an elderly woman at a Nouakchott polling station.

Party activists near several polling stations discreetly tried to canvas last-minute support, breaking election law.

"I know propaganda is forbidden near polling stations on election day, but everyone is doing it," said a campaigner called Rabia when challenged by a journalist.

Tewassoul is the only member of the so-called "radical" opposition, the 11-party Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD), contesting the polls after its coalition partners said they would "boycott this electoral masquerade".

Opposition parties' supporters attend a 

meeting in Nouakchott on November 21, 

2013, as part of the campaign for the 

legislative and municipal elections

scheduled for November 23 (AFP/File)

The party, associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, professes to hold more moderate beliefs than the country?s jihadist fringe and draws support from female voters and Mauritania's young, urban middle-class -- although it has just four seats in parliament.

Party leader Jemil Ould Mansour, who has described Tewassoul's participation as a form of struggle against the "dictatorship" of Abdel Azi, complained of foul play in the voting process after casting his ballot.

"I note that deficiencies have been observed by our members, including a campaign inside a polling station by its manager in favour of one particular party and the refusal in some places to let our representatives into polling stations," he said.

The UPR is the only party fielding candidates in every constituency, making it a strong favourite over Tewassoul, its closest rival, and the People's Progressive Alliance of parliament leader Messaoud Ould Boulkheir.

"I hope that this election will end the political stalemate that exists and I think the door of dialogue should remain open to achieve this," Ould Boulkheir said.

Messaoud Ould Boulkheir delivers a

 campaign speech in Nouakchott

on November 21, 2013 (AFP)

Following independence from France and the ensuing one-party government of Moktar Ould Daddah, deposed in 1978, Mauritania had a series of military rulers until its first multi-party election in 1992.

Abdel Aziz seized power in a 2008 coup and was elected a year later, but the COD has never accepted his rule as legitimate and demanded he make way for a neutral leader to administer the vote.

"We made the necessary effort to ensure that everyone could participate in these elections but, unfortunately, not all the parties were involved," the president said after casting his ballot.

"I think, unfortunately for them, they missed an opportunity, an important date, because they find themselves in a situation where they will be absent from the National Assembly and therefore the political debate."

The first preliminary results were expected to be announced on Sunday.

Brazil 'to write off' almost $900m of African debt

BBC News, 25 May 2013

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Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (L)
wants to boost trade with Africa

Brazil has announced that it will cancel or restructure almost $900m (£600m) worth of debt with Africa.

Oil- and gas-rich Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania and Zambia are among the 12 African countries to benefit.

The move is seen as an effort to boost economic ties between the world's seventh largest economy and the African continent.

Official data in Brazil show that its trade with Africa has increased fivefold in the past decade.

The debt announcement was made during the third visit in three months to Africa by Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, who attended the African Union summit in Ethiopia.

'Strategic'

"Almost all (aid) is cancellation," Ms Rousseff's spokesman, Thomas Traumann, told reporters.

"To maintain a special relationship with Africa is strategic for Brazil's foreign policy."

He added that most of the debt was accumulated in the 1970s and had been renegotiated before.

A spokesman for Brazil's Foreign Ministry told Efe news agency that the debt restructuring for some countries would consist of more favourable interest rates and longer repayment terms.

Congo-Brazzaville owes the most to Brazil - $352m - followed by Tanzania ($237m) and Zambia ($113.4m).

The other countries to benefit are Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, and Sudan.

Resource-hungry

Brazil has been increasingly expanding its economic ties with resource-rich Africa as part of the so-called South-South cooperation.

Trade between the two blocks went from $5bn (£3.3bn) in 2000 to $26.5bn (£17.5bn) in 2012. 

Trade between Brazil and Africa has grown fivefold in the
 last decade, fuelled by South America's hunger for
natural resources

Brazilian companies invest heavily in oil and mining in Africa, and have taken on big infrastructure projects.

Latin America's economic powerhouse has also opened 19 new embassies in Africa in the last decade, and is forecast to grow 3.5 percent this year.

But Brazil's hunt for natural resources has not always been easy in Africa.

Last month, hundreds of protesters in Mozambique blocked the entrance to a Brazilian coal mine in a row over a compensation deal agreed after they were displaced.

Human Rights Watch, a rights group, said farming communities had been resettled on arid lands and had suffered food shortages.

The Brazilian giant Vale, which owns the mine, and the government of Mozambique said improvements were being made.

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“… The Future of the Illuminati

Now, I want to tell you something that you didn't expect and something I've reported only one other time. What about all of the money that the Illuminati has? There are trillions and trillions of euro in banks, under their control, waiting. What are they going to do with it and where are they going to use it? It's still here. They're waiting.

This group is waiting for something to happen that they know is going to happen, for they see it coming as much as I do. However, I would like to tell you something that they don't expect. With awareness comes generational shift. Those in charge of this money will not always be elders. The indigos eventually will have it.

They are waiting for something to happen in Africa - the building of a new civilization, a continent that has nothing to unlearn. Once Africa is cured, once it's ready, a new civilization can be created from the ground up. Africans will be ready to learn everything about building a foundation for the most advanced civilization ever and will do it with the most modern and inventive systems available. Eventually, this new continent will even beat the economics of China.

This is the prediction and always has been, and the Illuminati's money will fund it. Did I say the Illuminati will fund it? [Kryon laugh] The Illuminati's money will fund it, but there is a difference from the past, dear ones. The ones who inherit the positions in the Illuminati will be a different consciousness. Listen, they are not suddenly going to be the ones who have the good of everyone in their hearts - hardly. They want to make money, but what they will see instead is a way to make a great deal of money through this investment. In the process, it will automatically help hundreds of thousands, and they will be at the beginning, the foundation, that builds the new Africa. The new African states of unification eventually will create a continent stronger than any of the others, and it will have one currency. The resources alone will dwarf anything in the world. ...”

Mauritania president returns home after shooting

BBC News, 24 November 2012

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• 'How I shot Mauritanian leader'
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President Abdelaziz appeared to be in
good health on his return to Mauritania

The president of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz has returned home for the first time since being wounded by one of his own soldiers last month.

President Abdelaziz was shot in the arm by a Mauritanian army soldier in what the government said was an accident.

He had been in France for the last six weeks receiving treatment.

Thousands of people gathered at the airport to greet the president on his return to the capital Nouakchott.

Large crowds also lined the route between the airport and the presidential palace.

Reporters present said the 55-year-old leader appeared to be in good health, and waved to crowds from his car, though he gave no statement.

The soldier responsible for shooting the president told Mauritanian television last month that he had fired on a car that appeared suspicious while guarding a military base outside Nouakchott, failing to realise that one of the occupants was the president.

President Abdelaziz seized power in a coup in 2008, in a country with a long history of coups.

He won a presidential election two years later and is seen by Western governments as a bulwark against Islamists in the region.

Mauritania head Abdelaziz flies to Paris after shooting

BBC News, 14 October 2012

Related Stories 

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Mr Abdelaziz appeared on Mauritanian
television before flying to Paris

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz is being flown to the French capital, Paris, after he was shot in what officials say was an accident.

He had surgery in the capital, Nouakchott, and will receive further medical treatment in France.

Before leaving, Mr Abdelaziz, 55, appeared on television from his hospital bed to say he was OK.

A military patrol is said to have mistakenly opened fire on the presidential convoy late on Saturday.

"I want to reassure the citizens of Mauritania that the operation I underwent yesterday [Saturday] evening was a success thanks to the efficiency of the medical team that carried it out," he said.

Earlier, Communications Minister Hamdi Ould Mahjoub said Mr Abdelaziz was injured in the arm and that his life was not in danger.

A medical source told AFP news agency that he had had a bullet removed.

It was not clear what treatment he was going to receive in Paris, says BBC Arabic's Mohammad Taha in Nouakchott.

The country is being run by the prime minister in the president's absence.

He is expected to open an inquiry into the shooting and two army officers have reportedly been detained on suspicion of involvement.

Assassination attempt?

Initially, Mauritanian radio reported Mr Abdelaziz had escaped an assassination attempt.

Many Nouakchott inhabitants tend to believe the "shot by mistake" claims as they are used to seeing the president walk in the city, play sport and drive his car without guards, our correspondent says. 

Some local reports say the president was targeted by a militant group while travelling from Tweila, north of the capital, where he spends most weekends, our correspondent says.

He was travelling overnight to the capital as the week starts in Mauritania on Sunday.

President Abdelaziz came to power in a military coup in 2008 in the West African nation. He won presidential elections a year later held under an agreement with coup opponents.

The BBC's Mohammed Taha says coups and coup attempts are almost a normal part of life in Mauritania, with three in the last ten years. The military has been involved in nearly every government since the country became independent from France in 1960.

The current president is seen by the West as a bulwark against Islamists in the region, particularly in neighbouring Mali.

Mauritania launched a joint military operation with Mali last year against the bases of Islamist militants in Mali before a rebellion in that country this year split it in two and hardline Islamists occupied the the country's vast northern region.

Related Article:

Mauritania's president shot by own army 'by mistake'

Gambia suspends executions of death row inmates

Deutsche Welle, 15 September 2012

Gambia has placed a moratorium on the execution of death row inmates. The president of the west African nation sparked international outrage when he vowed to execute all 47 death row prisoners by mid-September.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh succumbed to regional and domestic pressure on Saturday, announcing that he had suspended the pending executions of the remaining 38 inmates on death row.

"It is hereby made clear that it is only a moratorium on executions and what happens next will be dictated by either a declining violent crime rate in which case the moratorium will be indefinite, or an increase in the violent crime rate, in which case the moratorium will be lifted automatically," the president's office said in a release. 

President Jammeh said that the
moratorium  is temporary and
executions may be reinstated

Jammeh announced on August 19 that his government planned to execute all the prisoners on death row by the middle of September. Nine of the original 47 inmates on death row were shot dead by firing squad on August 28. All nine had been convicted on murder charges.

Neighboring countries such as Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal had pressured Gambia to stay the executions. Gambia is completely surrounded by Senegal, with the exception of a small strip of Atlantic coastline.

But Jammeh's office said that despite the death penalty moratorium, "no amount of bad mouthing or pressure can make the president shy away from upholding the oaths that he has sworn as president."

Jammeh seized power in a 1994 coup and has long been criticized for his government's poor human rights record.

slk/jlw (AFP, Reuters)

Abdullah al-Senussi: spy with secrets of Lockerbie bombing sent back to Libya

Officials in Mauritania return Senussi to Libya six months after he slipped into their country on false passport

guardian.co.uk, Luke Harding, Ian Black, Severin Carrell and Chris Stephen, Wednesday 5 September 2012

Abdullah al-Senussi, Libya's former director of military intelligence, is one
of the world’s most wanted men. Photograph: Paul Hackett /Reuters

MuammarGaddafi's former spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the man thought to have orchestrated the Lockerbie bombing, was extradited to Libya from Mauritania on Wednesday amid an international legal tussle over where he should face trial.

Officials in Mauritania returned Senussi to Libya six months after he slipped into their country on a false passport. Senussi arrived back in Tripoli at lunchtime. He emerged from an ambulance helicopter, seemingly relaxed and with a nervous smile, before Libyan security officials whisked him away to prison.

Senussi, Gaddafi's former director of military intelligence, is one of the world's most wanted men. Libya, France and the international criminal court (ICC) are all seeking his extradition.

France wants to question him in connection with the bombing of a UTA passenger plane in 1989. The ICC has indicted him for crimes against humanity during Libya's civil war last year.

Britain also has a strong interest in Senussi and is likely to try to interview him in connection with the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Senussi headed Libya's external security organisation at the time and is said to have recruited Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of bombing the Pan Am 103 flight, which killed 270 people. Megrahi died at his home in Libya in May. The US also wants to arrest Senussi in connection with Lockerbie.

Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, 20, was one of 35 Syracuse University students killed in the bombing, said it would be "excellent" if Scottish investigators succeeded in meeting him.

"I would thoroughly urge them to do so," she said. "It's vital to interview Senussi. I would hope they will be interviewing others. I think it's extremely important that we know. There may be other people [in Libya] who can be indicted and if that is the case, we need to do that."

As Gaddafi's trusted confidante and brother-in-law, Senussi is now in a unique position to shed light on the secrets of the Gaddafi era. In an interview with the Guardian in May, Libya's prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keib called Senussi the ousted regime's "black box".

He also said Senussi knew the identity of the killer of PC Yvonne Fletcher, shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. "I guarantee he was almost directly or indirectly involved in most if not all of the crimes [of the former regime]," Keib said. He added: "That doesn't mean others weren't involved. But he definitely knows who they were."

On Wednesday John Murray, a former police constable who was on duty with Fletcher outside the embassy, and who remembers her dying in his arms, said the UK should seek permission to interview Senussi. The case has remained open since her murder. "Senussi was one of the key players. He's got all the answers. If they [the government] were taking the Yvonne investigation seriously they would be on the plane to Libya already," he said. Foreign Office officials said the UK had already formally asked the Libyan government to facilitate any investigation into Lockerbie and the Fletcher killing. But it remains unclear what access to Senussi – if any – British detectives will be given.

His extradition comes at a moment of political uncertainty for Libya, as it struggles to put in place a new transitional government following July's historic post-Gaddafi elections, the first democratic vote in the country for more than 40 years. A new prime minister may emerge next week, amid horsetrading between centrists and Islamists in the new parliament. Libyan officials hailed Senussi's arrest on Wednesday as a crucial step towards the creation of a state based on institutions and justice.

But the case will deepen Libya's legal standoff with the international community. The ICC said Senussi should be handed over for trial in the Hague. It indicted him last year, along with Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam, for crimes committed against civilians.

Saif was arrested by Libyan forces in November. Tripoli now says Saif will appear in court this month, likely before the ICC judges issue a decision on whether they consider Libya has a legal system robust enough to guarantee a fair trial. The issue of the death penalty – certain to be demanded by Libyan prosecutors – will prove highly contentious.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who prosecuted the late Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague, said Libya could be heading for another political showdown with the ICC if it refuses to hand Senussi over. The ICC has already crossed swords with Libya after one of its defence lawyers, Melinda Taylor, was detained earlier this year while visiting Saif in the western mountain town of Zintan. "Libya will have to make an application to claim admissibility. It depends whether the ICC desires to have this case," Nice said.

Senussi is now in custody in Tripoli's Hadbat al-Khadra prison, guarded by the ministry of justice and police. The prison houses other prominent figures from the former regime, including Gaddafi's prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi and external intelligence chief Abuzeid Dorda. Libya's deputy prosecutor general, Taha Baara, said Senussi would undergo routine medical tests before undergoing interrogation.

Libya's provisional government wants to try him in connection with numerous human rights abuses, including the massacre of 1,200 prisoners at the Abu Salim jail in 1996, which he is said to have personally supervised. During the 2011 Libyan civil war, he was blamed for orchestrating killings in the city of Benghazi and recruiting foreign mercenaries. Senussi was married to Gaddafi's sister-in-law. Leaked US diplomatic cables describe him as a trusted "senior regime figure" "who had played a role as minder of the more troublesome Gaddafi offspring".

They add: "Sanussi … is usually in physical proximity to the tent in which Gaddafi holds meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries and, according to members of Gaddafi's protocol office, personally oversees Gaddafi's close protection detail."Senussi reportedly fled Tripoli as it fell to the rebels in August 2011, going first to Sirte and then heading southwards, home to his Megarha tribe before going to ground in Ghat. In October, when Gaddafi was killed, he crossed into Niger with a Tuareg escort. In November, according to reports, he was first in Mali then Mauritania and finally Morocco. Senussi arrived in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott from Casablanca on a scheduled Royal Air Maroc flight on 16 March. Mauritania said he was identified in a routine passport check but Arab sources claim French intelligence was involved in the operation.

The Moroccan magazine Telquel reported that he had been under surveillance for some time by Moroccan security services.

Arab Spring unsettles Africa's Sahel region

Deutsche Welle, 27 june 2012

The demise of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has sent shock waves through the Sahel and Mali has been hit the worst. The roar of the Arab Spring still rumbles through many African countries.

A date for a presidential election had been fixed, but the band of Malian soldiers was not prepared to wait. At the end of March 2012, four weeks before the ballot, President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup. The coup plotters alleged that he was incapable of running the country or of defeating the rebels in the north. Since the beginning of the year, the rebel Tuaregs and their allies had been notching up territorial gains in their campaign against the government in Bamako. Their ranks had been filled by mercenaries, who just months beforehand had been fighting for the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. This was something the Malian military felt they could tolerate no longer and so they decided to seize power. 

Amadou Toumani Touré handed in his
resignation before going into exile in
Senegal

After the coup, the chaos deepened. The constitution was suspended, the presidential election cancelled and all state institutions were dissolved. Unwittingly, the soldiers who mounted the coup had strengthened the hand of the rebels they wished to defeat. The rebels exploited this to their full advantage. They overran not only the whole of northern Mali, but Timbuktu in the west as well. On April 6 2012, they declared an independent north Malian state, naming it Azawad. It encompassed mostly traditional Tuareg territory, the Tuaregs believing that the government in Bamako had neglected them for far too long.

Once a model African state

Northern Mali is now controlled by the Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and its allies, which include the Islamist group Ansar Dine and al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM).

"There was a time when the Sahel states were relatively stable democracies, at least when compared to the dictatorships of Mubarak and Gadhafi," says Marco Scholze, an expert on Mali from the University of Frankfurt. Mali was considered a model African state. It had a constitution, a multiparty system, a national assembly and over the last few decades had made the transition from one-party rule to a more or less properly functioning democracy.

Not much of that seems to have survived. On the contrary, the negative consequences of the Arab Spring are being felt very keenly. Most of the African mercenaries, including many Tuaregs, who earned their living by fighting for the late Colonel Gadhafi, have returned to their home countries, to Mauretania, Niger, Chad and Mali.

Clashes between allies

They took their weapons with them. "The arsenals and munitions dumps were looted," says Marco Scholze. Those weapons are now circulating throughout the whole region. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Tuaregs have acquired new-found firepower. Judith Vorrath from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs observes that there have been Tuareg rebellions in the past and the political situation in Mali has been tense for some time. "But because of the situation in Libya, the weapons and the mercenaries," she explains, "the whole business boiled over." 

AQIM and Ansar Dine favor sharia
law including a strict dress code for
women

The separatists may have been denied international recognition but they have little to fear, either from the demoralized Malian government troops or their allied militia. The African Union appears reluctant to get involved. Only ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc, is picking up the challenge, negotiating with coup leaders and separatists. ECOWAS is also mulling over the deployment of 3,000 troops to Mali. The greatest threat to the young state of Azawad comes from within. MNLA rebels and the Islamist group Ansar Dine have quite different aims. Whereas Ansar Dine and al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM) want to found a state based on sharia law, most of the people in the region would prefer to live in a more secular environment. Meanwhile there have been reports of armed skirmishes between the MNLA and their Islamist militant allies. 

A new terror breeding ground

Tuareg rebels are reported to have
 clashed with Ansar Dine and AQIM
militants

Clashes of this sort in the region are nothing new. Instability began to descend on the Sahel states in the 1990s and was made worse by the civil war in Algeria. A minority of the Islamists, who had been deprived of their election victory there, regrouped in terrorist organisations which were subsumed into AQIM in 2006. AQIM has influence in Niger and Mauretania as well as in Mali. It has close ties to local criminal gangs involved in the drugs trade and people smuggling in Europe. There are also first indications that AQIM is supporting the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram in Nigeria and the al-Shabab militants in Somalia, triggering alarm bells in the United States.

The fall of Gadhafi poured oil on the flames. A sprawling army of mercenaries returned home, armed but without work. "Northern Mali is mostly desert," Judith Vorrat says. "The borders that are marked on the maps aren't patrolled." Some observers fear that this ungoverned, or ungovernable, space could turn into a breeding ground for a new terrorist threat.

Author: Anne Allmeling / mc

Editor: Susan Houlton

Africa's share of foreign direct investment largest ever

BBC News, 3 May 2012

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Africa received its largest ever share of global foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, an Ernst and Young survey has said.

FDI projects grew by 27% in 2011, pushing Africa's share of the world's investment to almost a quarter.

FDI inflows, now about $80bn (£50bn), should reach $150bn by 2015, according to the global consultants.

But potential investors still see Africa as "the least attractive" destination, the report finds.

'Story of progress'

Investment is close to levels last seen before the financial crisis, the firm said in its 2012 Africa Attractiveness Survey.

There have been significant inflows into the manufacturing, infrastructure-related and services sectors.

Ernst and Young found there was a "stark contrast" between those who had already invested in Africa and those who had not, with the latter concerned about corruption and political instability.

"In fact, for those respondents with no business presence in Africa, the continent is viewed as by far the least attractive investment destination in the world," the report said.

"There are challenges, but we need to start having a different conversation about Africa where we focus on the positive stories," Michael Lolar, head of Africa Business Centre at Ernst and Young's Johannesburg office told the BBC.

"For us, the story of Africa is a story of progress, growth, a story of political and economic vibrancy," Mr Lolar said.

He said Zambia saw a 93% rise in investments over the past year - a result of a well-managed economy and a peaceful handover of power.

Ghana, Botswana, Tanzania, Cape Verde and Mauritius also attracted high FDI inflows.

Africa itself is also helping to push up investments.

"Intra-African investment has grown substantially, more so than any other category in the last four years, being led by South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria," Mr Lolar said.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Based in Greece, Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to built Africa to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - New !