INTERVIEW-Aid key to curbing al Qaeda threat in W.Africa - US
27 Apr 2007 16:34:00 GMT Source: Reuters
By Nick Tattersall
BAMAKO, April 27 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda ideology represents a growing threat in northwest Africa and development aid, not just a military response, is key to stopping its spread, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Friday.
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which emerged from Algeria's civil war in the 1990s, renamed itself al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb earlier this year and claimed responsibility for twin bomb attacks in Algiers two weeks ago.
"Traditionally the GSPC ... was seen as a group whose primary purpose was undermining or overthrowing a secular Algerian state," said Terence McCulley, U.S. ambassador to Mali, one of Algeria's southern neighbours.
"By rebranding itself as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, that does suggest a broader agenda. It suggests an acceptance of the notion of jihad and it goes beyond the boundaries of one state," he told Reuters in an interview.
In recent years the group has used the Sahel, a vast swathe of weakly-governed territory stretching through Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad on the southern edge of the Sahara, to train and recruit, intelligence experts and diplomats say.
The region, among the poorest in the world, is regarded as a potentially fertile recruiting ground because of high levels of youth unemployment. Some areas are still awash with arms after rebellions by nomadic groups in the 1990s.
"There is certainly still a presence here in Mali and it is a presence that we and others are concerned about, including the Malian authorities. They see it as an external element which has no place in Malian society," McCulley said.
DEVELOPMENT AID KEY
U.S. military experts have trained armies in the Sahel, including in Mali, for several years as part of Washington's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) to bolster military cooperation and intelligence-sharing in the region.
Algerian armed forces shot dead the coordinator and second-in-command of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Thursday, according to the official news agency APS.
U.S. military officials have in the past said regional cooperation has led to significant strikes against the group.
McCulley said the military strategy was only part of the equation in West Africa, where the predominant form of Islam has traditionally been tolerant and open to other cultures.
"There's a recognition that if you're going to look at problems of insecurity and countering extremism in this vast trans-Saharan zone, you really need a holistic approach that focuses on military capacity-building but also on development needs and the root causes of extremism," he said.
"In the longer term, the development piece is arguably the most important: that you create economic opportunity and hope and bring people into full participation in a vibrant, moderate Muslim democracy."
Washington became Mali's largest bilateral donor in October when its Millennium Challenge Corporation approved $461 million over 5 years to reduce poverty and boost economic growth there.
It is part of a strategy Washington hopes will help maintain Mali's reputation as a tolerant democracy in a turbulent region.
"The extremist message has very little purchase here in Mali ... while there are no doubt exogenous elements who seek to preach and proselytise a more extremist version of Islam I think that has very little resonance for the large majority of Malians," McCulley said.
