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Experts fear West, Central Africa could turn into "powder keg" in Gaddafi's absence

Tripoli , Mon, 12 Sep 2011 ANI

Tripoli, Sept 12 (ANI): The defeat of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi will lead to a proliferation of arms and fighters in the desert areas of West and Central Africa, turning the region into a "powder keg," regional experts.

 

"The repercussion of the Libyan crisis on the ... region has become palpable, particularly with the arrival of large amounts of weapons and four-wheel drive vehicles and the return of armed individuals involved in the Libyan crisis," CBS News quoted Mohamed Bazoum, the Foreign Minister of Niger, as saying during a two-day conference in Algiers that ended late on Thursday.

 

They are concerned that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a resurgent Islamist militant group, will try to grab hold of surface-to-air missiles, which have disappeared from Libyan stockpiles.

 

Human Rights Watch had complained last week that thousands of shoulder-launched heat-seeking missiles had gone missing from looted warehouses in Tripoli.

 

"If these fall into the wrong hands they could turn all of North Africa into a no-fly zone," Peter Bouckaert, Emergencies Director at the New York-based pressure group, said.

 

AQIM has kidnapped Westerners in recent years, and reports suggest that a year ago this month, AQIM had abducted seven foreigners from a French-run uranium mine in Arlit, northern Niger.

 

AQIM, which originated as an anti-government insurgency limited only to Algeria, now operates in Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal and has stated its ambitions to expand its operations across the Sahel, the name given to the thick strip of arid land that stretches across Africa along the southern fringe of the Sahara.

 

Gilles de Kerchove, the European Union counterterrorism coordinator, also warned that AQIM is building closer ties with Islamist militants in Nigeria and Somalia.

 

"This is something that the intelligence services are following very closely. There is still nothing structural, but there are efforts at contacts, and some small transfers of money.

 

It seems that some members of Boko Haram and Al Shabaab were trained by AQIM," Kerchove added. (ANI)

 


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