Terrorism In North Africa

North Africa is a huge area that is becoming a safe place for terror groups. Are we facing another failed state? What should be done about it? Should the United States send troops to North Africa to prevent it from becoming another Afghanistan?

The Jan. 16 attack on the natural-gas installation at In Amenas, Algeria, like the Sept. 11, 2012, raid on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, was the work of al-Qaida affiliates operating in the Sahel, a region in North Africa defined by both the Sahara desert and centuries of tribal warfare.

Its latest iteration, responsible for more than 100,000 deaths, has been the decade-old Islamic insurgency in Algeria. The conflict has received little international attention — until an attempted rescue of the In Amenas hostages by Algerian Special Forces resulted in 37 deaths, including several Americans.

The Sahara, the largest desert between the two poles, has been both an obstacle and a route for invaders — from the Romans to the French Foreign Legion. Although Timbuktu was long a center of learning and commerce, back to the golden empire of Mansa Musa, the region is now a neglected part of the world –making it an ideal safe haven for terrorists.

The sands respect no borders and erase divisions between Algeria and Mali, a fact traditionally exploited by desert nomads and lately by jihadists led by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Until French forces recaptured the main towns, AQIM had controlled northern Mali for 10 months and ran the area under Shariah law. The jihadists’ pronounced goal, shared by Salafists and other radical Muslim groups, is to recreate the Caliphate of Islam’s glory years of the eighth century, when it controlled territory from Andalusia to India.

Their confidence is not unfounded. Neither Mali nor its neighbors possess the capabilities or the will to defeat the Islamist insurgency. If, as President Francois Hollande recently announced, France will declare victory and withdraw its troops, the conflict threatens to continue metastasizing over time.

Local media have reported that the rebels have attracted recruits from other Islamist movements, such as the Boko Haram in Nigeria, and from countries as far away as Canada, as well as weapons from Libya. A precipitous withdrawal by the French would solidify the Islamists’ belief that, if the Prophet could create his Caliphate from the sands of Medina, they can recreate it from the sands of Timbuktu.

The situation is further complicated by the region’s oil and natural gas wealth.