All your Touareg are belong to us
The Sahel Blog has been posting on the recent peace agreement in Niger’s Touareg conflict:
Not that they were fighting anyway, but Mali’s rebels are supposedly also involved. And so is Muammar, ambitious as always:
Gaddafi said all Tuaregs living in Niger and Mali, and elsewhere in Sub Sahara African areas, were Libyan but said he wanted them to live in peace where they had settled.
No need to thank him, that’s just the way he is: generous to a fault. But in fact, Qadhafi’s claims of leadership among the Touareg has a long history, and it has caused considerable irritation among some Algerians who fear that he’s trying to spread separatist ideas in the south of their country. However, after one newspaper started reporting on some quite blatant Libyan incitement of Algerian Touareg, it was told in no uncertain terms by Algeira’s judicial authorities to shut up, lest The Guide get mad. That’s soft power for you, Maghreb-style.
Note also the recent violence between Tuaregs and Arabs in Debdeb, Illizi, southern Algeria. Perhaps unrelated, but some reports mention involvement of Libyan Tuaregs.
Here is a link to the El Watan stories. I am preparing a post about them (more related to Algeria at large), and I the issue might interest others too.
http://www.elwatan.dz/?page=recherche_avancee&searching=1&search=Debdeb&date=tout&rech=elwatan
“lest The Guide get mad”
Oh no, God forbid that the Supreme Leader gets mad…
Ah! No pun intended…
The touareg community need a state called RATD (Republic Arab Touaregui Democratic) in the big sahara of south Algeria.