Blog 2: Extremists Captured on Algerian Border

           This article describes an incident recently in which Algerian officials captured four militant Muslims at the border of Mali and the border of Libya.  They were all four heavily armed and likely engaged in the conflict occurring in Mali where the Tuareg people are in a political revolt and Muslim extremists are taking over various towns; these extremists were having notable success since they are more organized and powerful than people expected, but France deployed ground troops to the area to try to fix the conflict to protect their economic interests.  This article sheds light on an important and potentially highly dangerous problem: these extremists seem to be using the deserts and highly spaced towns to their advantage since they are able to easily cross borders there.  This area makes it easy for those extremists who wish to engage in the fighting to cross the border areas and deliver supplies or use the routes for other various reasons.

            The article takes a different approach to the problem of the war in Mali by looking at the consequences that neighboring countries are facing because of the violence in Mali.  Two of the militants that were captured, on the Libya-Algeria border, were found near a gas plant that was taken over in Algeria during the weeks prior.  These militants attacked the Algerian gas plant in response to the French intervention in the northern cities of Mali; this is a global issue because our advanced technology is now ensuring that actions within countries almost always have effect on those countries that share a border, and increasingly countries beyond.  The fact that the Tuareg people are spread across the region without consideration of borders also leads to the global problem because they all consider themselves one people which makes fighting hard to contain within individual borders that were imposed after the Tuareg people had been living there for generations.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-08/news/sns-rt-us-mali-rebels-algeriabre9170s8-20130208_1_algerian-troops-lamine-chikhi-campaign-against-islamist-rebels

Steven Harrison

2/12/2013

10:56pm