Algeria: An Island Of Calm In An ISIL Storm

[Valin]

Strategy Page:

Nov. 18 2015

 

Despite all the Islamic terrorist activity in the Middle East and the rest of the world Algeria (and its neighbors Morocco and Tunisia) have been largely unaffected. Algerian officials attribute this to an internal security system that successfully detects Islamic terrorist activity and deals with it. While all three countries have problems with corruption and bad government these issues are less damaging here than elsewhere in the region. In addition Algeria has the advantage of a population that is particularly hostile to Islamic terrorism because of a bloody war with Islamic terrorists during the 1990s. During this conflict the Islamic terrorists tried, unsuccessfully, to coerce (via mass murder) reluctant civilians to support them. The peace deal that ended that war included an amnesty program that saw a lot of Islamic terrorists switch sides. There are still Islamic terrorists in Algeria but they have not been able to do much for over a decade. The intensity of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) violence elsewhere helps suppress support for Islamic terrorism inside Algeria and the police continue to get lots of tips about actual or suspected Islamic terrorist activity. So far so good, despite a recent purge in the security services because of a growing anti-corruption movement.

 

The Mali border continues to be a problem because the Islamic terrorists operating in Mali still try to move through Algeria, usually to smuggle drugs to the coast and thence to Europe. Doing this is a major source of income for Islamic terrorist groups who, when they have established a safe route, will also use it to move weapons and Islamic terrorists. Normally bribes would work to safely move drugs through but the Islamic terrorism angle means that few military or police officials will accept the money and the smugglers have to rely on skill and luck to get through. That often isn’t enough, as can be seen by the constant clashes on the Mali and Niger borders. Algeria has good relations with tribes in the south, especially Tuareg ones that have good connections with Tuareg across the border in Mali, Niger and Libya. This connection enables the security forces down there to keep watch on what is really going on in northern Mali. These Tuareg connections also enabled Algeria to help mediate the recent peace deal in northern Mali that ended the latest Tuareg insurrection. All that is left in northern Mali is the small groups of Islamic terrorists who now have fewer Tuareg they can depend on.

 

Meanwhile the neighbors are trying to contain the Islamic terrorist disease Libya is harboring. Tunisia is building a border wall along the Libyan frontier and imposing stricter screening at ports and airports. Egypt has done the same and sent thousands of additional troops to the border. The Algerian efforts have so far managed to protect Algeria from the Islamic terrorist threat from Libya. While Algeria helped arrange a workable peace deal in Mali it has been unable to do the same in Libya. Instead Algeria has managed to seal its borders sufficiently to keep most Libya based Islamic terrorists out. Algerian security forces have managed to hunt down and destroy those that do get in.

 

(Snip)