http://news.antiwar.com/2013/01/29/uns-libya-envoy-fears-mali-war-will-drive-islamists-into-libya/
Interestingly, the Mali rebels obtainedmost of their weaponry in the first place from Libya, as the NATO-imposed regime change led to looting of the Gadhafi regimes arsenal and its sale on black markets across the region.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Libya-An-Energy-Asset-Security-Nightmare.html
Mali troops hauled off truckloads of bound detainees, while a youth militia calling itself the Gao Patrolmen forced their way into homes hunting for people who might be sympathetic to the rebel cause.
Traditionally the melting-pot where the ethnicities from southern Mali blend with those from the deserts of northern Mali, Timbuktu is one of the first sites of revenge attacks, with reports of at least oneattempted lynching of a northerner by the crowd.
UN’s Libya Envoy Fears Mali War Will Drive Islamists Into Libya
Armed in Libya, Islamist Rebels May Come Back
by Jason Ditz, January 29, 2013
UN Special Representative to Libya Tarek Mitri expressed concern today that as the French invasion of Mali continues to press northward, the rebel factions may flee across the border into Algeria and wind up in Libya.
Interestingly, the Mali rebels obtainedmost of their weaponry in the first place from Libya, as the NATO-imposed regime change led to looting of the Gadhafi regimes arsenal and its sale on black markets across the region.
Those weapons may end up back in Libya the hard way, as the fighters in Mali eventually back out of the desert north of that nation and resettle as armed factions in southern Libya, an area that already has plenty of such warring factions.
Mitri warned that Libya is already struggling with stability and that ideological and ethnic affiliations with the Mali rebels could convince them that Libya is a place where they could not only relocate, but make a serious impact.
and regarding Libya........
Libya—awash with roving militias and presently undergoing a near-total evacuation of Westerners from oil-producing Benghazi—is doing its best to make a few cosmetic security changes in an atmosphere of growing uncertainty.
Libya has announced a new visa policy requiring all foreigners to obtain visas before entering Libya. This adds Tunisians, Turks and Jordanians to the list. It has also implemented stricter policies for employing foreign workers on Libyan territory.
These are the measures being put in place to boost security of energy assets—the bulk of which are located in remote, sparsely populated desert regions close to the Algerian border.
Libya is keen to insist that it was in no way involved in the spectacular attack on the BP-operated gas field in the Algerian Sahara in mid-January. It is less keen to bring up the fact that the attackers entered Algeria from the Libyan border, which sits only 100 kilometers from the BP assets.
These latest measures will do little to boost security in Libya, where much of the country’s south and half of its border regions are not even under government control. Libya has promised to send more troops to patrol the border with Algeria, but this, too, will be challenging in territory to which the government has had to cede control to a variety of tribes.
Terrorist groups have almost uncontested mobility across much of this Sahelian desert border land.
More significantly, the French intervention in Mali is pushing militants across these borders, where there are already indications that they are regrouping in parts of Libya and other desert locations. Libya is already awash with roving militias—some of them deemed “friendly” and involved in providing security for the energy industry and Western consulates. This loyalty is at best uncertain. With an influx of fighters from the Mali theater, loyalties may shift and catch the industry unprepared for disaster (much as the US consulate in Benghazi was unprepared in September 2012).
Arms depots uncovered in Tunisia, along the route to Libya, in recent days point to plans for another attack under way.
The energy industry appears to be underestimating the security threat across the Sahel, misreading the attack on Algeria and implications of the conflict in Mali. Evacuations and relocations have centered only on Benghazi and Algeria—while the threat should be considered region-wide.
Tunisia is rightfully concerned about security at its energy sites in the country’s south. Special units have been deployed to reinforce security at these southern desert venues, which are close to the borders with Libya and Algeria. (Also close to where the two arms depots were recently uncovered).
Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Tunisia are all major fossil fuels or minerals venues, and they are all potential attack targets. Of these, Libya has been destabilized since the death of Gaddafi; Mali is embroiled in a major conflict; Niger and Mauritania are poor and corrupt and security forces are easily infiltrated; Algeria has the most capable security forces, but struggles to control its borders and Egypt and Tunisia are distracted by continuing political unrest, which in the former threatens again to assume revolutionary proportions.
By. Jen Alic of Oilprice.com
and......
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/01/29/suspected-rebel-backers-beaten-in-malis-gao/
Suspected Rebel Backers Beaten in Mali’s Gao
Detentions Reported as Pro-Regime 'Youth Militia' Hunts 'Suspects'
by Jason Ditz, January 29, 2013
The capture of the eastern Mali city of Gao by the regime after nearly a year in rebel hands has prompted an ugly round of revenge attacks, with reports of beatings in the streets of people who were believed to have been supporters of the Islamist rebels.
Mali troops hauled off truckloads of bound detainees, while a youth militia calling itself the Gao Patrolmen forced their way into homes hunting for people who might be sympathetic to the rebel cause.
Though the fighters in Gao virtually all fled in the face of French air strikes, but the locals who stayed through the rebel occupation and remained for the regime’s reoccupation are finding themselves suspect, particularly those who are from ethnicities seen by the junta as pro-rebel.
Revenge attacks have become a growing problem as the regime has retaken central cities on the Niger River, with reports of mass looting in Timbuktu and even attempted lynchings.
and......
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/01/29/looters-target-arab-algerian-owned-shops-in-timbuktu/
Looters Target Arab, Algerian-Owned Shops in Timbuktu
French Occupation of Ancient City Prompts Revenge Attacks
by Jason Ditz, January 29, 2013
The French occupation of Timbuktu has prompted an ugly round of race-based looting in the ancient city today, with hundreds of Malians attacking shops across the city, looting those they believe were owned by “Arabs” or “Algerians.”
Traditionally the melting-pot where the ethnicities from southern Mali blend with those from the deserts of northern Mali, Timbuktu is one of the first sites of revenge attacks, with reports of at least oneattempted lynching of a northerner by the crowd.
It underscores just how quickly the Western-backed war could turn into race-based revenge killings, with multiple reports of the southern junta’s troops openly persecutingthe lighter-skinned residents, suspecting them of being secretly loyal to the northern rebels.
Junta troops have promised “heavy patrols” in the city to minimize the looting, but also claimed that “weapons and communications equipment” had been found in at least one of the looted stores.
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