What happens when the mercenaries return home?

Posted By Joshua Keating Thursday, March 3, 2011 - 6:21 PM Share

According to Malian officials, Muammar al-Qaddafi's government has recruited hundreds of young Tuaregs, including former rebels, from Mali and Niger to act as mercenaries. As AFP's Serge Daniel reports, locals are worried about what this will mean for the restive region when they return home:

"We are worried in many respects," said Abdou Salam Ag Assalat, president of the Regional Assembly of Kidal.

These young people "are going in masses (to Libya). It's very dangerous for us because whether Kadhafi resists or he falls, there will be an impact for our region."

He said regional authorities "are trying to dissuade them" from leaving, particularly ex-rebels, but that it was not easy as there were "dollars and weapons" waiting for them.

Assalat said an entire network was in place to organise the trip to Libya.

"Kadhafi's reach stretches to us. He knows who to call, they make group trips. There seems to be an air link from Chad. Others go by road to southern Libya."

"All of that scares me, really, because one day they will come back with the same arms to destabilise the Sahel," said Assalat, adding that "a former Malian Tuareg rebel leader is also in Libya", but did not mention his name.

The Tuareg Rebellion in Niger and Mali is currently in a state of cease-fire, which was actually partially negotiated by Qaddafi in 2009. It's not hard to imagine that the situation could deteriorate quickly with an influx of well-armed Libya veterans.

 

USAMA2

11:52 PM ET

March 3, 2011

Curse on you Foreign Policy

So you show a photo of some unarmed, smiling Taureg young men on a truck and these are your bloody mercenaries?

One "Arab" in a turban is as good as another, eh?

So bigoted.

So contemptuous.

So amoral.

Truly reflects the amorality which goes for editorial ethics for photo journalism at Foreign Policy.

 

THE OPEN MIND

11:16 AM ET

March 4, 2011

"curse on you"

is anyone else struck by the irony of a guy with a name like usama2 criticizing foreign policy as being bigoted, comtemptuous, and amoral. you shouldn't use 'arab' in a sentence so close to the words 'bigoted, contemptuous, and amoral" because a reader could easily get your message mixed up. lets talk about 'amoral' in the arab world...how many libyan woman and children do you see at the tunisian and egyptian borders trying to get out? Zero. The men have all left them behind. 'So bigoted and contemptuous'--- as if arab society was so tolerant of everyone else. Give me a break. The only reason you are allowed to have an opinion is probably because you are living in a non-arab country. your opinion is tired....and pathetic.

 

THE OPEN MIND

11:22 AM ET

March 4, 2011

and another thing

...and please save your melodramatic arab way of talking for the streets where you pump both fists in the air. "curse on you"....you talks like that? if i have to hear another empty threat of 'blood will flow like a river in the streets' while watching some arab guy with bread taped to his head for protection, i might go crazy. you're a joke.

 

WATCHFULBABBLER

9:54 AM ET

March 4, 2011

Everything old is new again

Well, Qadhdhafi's got a history of using Tuaregs as mercenaries, specifically in his Failaka al-Islamiyya revolutionary shock troops, who did a notably poor job of supporting FROLINAT rebels but successfully spread separatist violence across a good part of the Sahel when they returned, trained and armed, from Libya.

Much, of course, depends on local factors: the Malian government hasn't undertaken (and hasn't really had the funding to carry out) a lot of necessary development projects, while desertification is destroying much of the Tuaregs' traditional lifestyle. Climate change is making treacherous the Azalai salt caravan route from Tawdenni, drying up oases and making it difficult for camels to survive the trek. There's just not a lot for young Tuaregs to go back to -- the salt monopoly has been their economic mainstay for literally millennia, but if there's no trade route, then the salt trade will be reduced to a smaller number of truck convoys, using fewer men and fewer trips. Not the same thing as the vast fleet of camels you'd see coming in off the desert, especially not for a culture where the line between child and man lay in a successful traversal of the Sahara.

At the same time, ethnic tensions between Tuaregs and other tribes probably haven't lessened in the last several years, which means that Tuaregs forced out of the desert into cities will face persistent discrimination. The military and the Tuaregs still have an adversarial relationship, which killed the major route intended for reconciliation and integration, and tribal politics seem to control how the Tuaregs in general approach negotiations.

On the other hand, there's probably not a lot of appetite in the north for a rebel resurgence, there haven't been any major outbreaks since 2009, and if Qadhdhafi falls Ibrahim Ag Bahanga (who doesn't seem to have a lot of tribal support) will be out his major patron, reducing his ability to sustain whatever forces he has left. (Anyone know what his splinter group commands these days?)

Given the role Qadhdhafi has played in the region since his 1969 coup, it's foolish to think that his fall (or near-fall) won't have serious repercussions. Hopefully we won't see a replay of the years of rebellion and violence that plagued the north.

 

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