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| Africa North |
| Tunisia confronts arms smuggling |
| 2013-09-26 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] Terrorist groups are looking to profit from mostly non-existent borders to smuggle weapons into Tunisia, local law agencies and international police organizations warn. "Tunisia is living with the threat of the proliferation of weapons because it is a neighbour of Libya, " Theoneste Mutsindashyak, the head of the Regional Centre on Small Arms, said at a recent Interpol conference in Algeria. Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou raised the same alarm to National Constituent Assembly members on Thursday (September 19th). "The large number of seized weapons inside the country could sustain a war," Ben Jeddou said. The ministry chose not to display the arms, he said, in order to protect the tourism sector and avoid causing anxiety among Tunisians. Algeria faces the same threat of incoming weapons from Libya. As a result, Tunisia's ties with its other neighbour are growing stronger. "There is an on-going project to facilitate communication between governors and mayors of cities on the border between Tunisia and Algeria in order to combat smuggling," Ben Jeddou said. Algerian security forces last week warned their Tunisian peers about a plot to smuggle Libyan weapons into the two countries. The Algerian army also reportedly called on its Tunisian counterpart to heighten border controls after the recent escape of dangerous detainees from a Libyan prison. "There is good operational and intelligence co-operation with our neighbours," Algerian National Security (DGSN) chief Abdelghani Hamel said. But Libya has yet to control the spread of weapons that began after the ouster of Moamer Qadaffy. According to Libyan blogger Zouhair Boujalled, security problems are deepening by the day because of the government's failure to disarm the population. Jihadist snuffies are also able to cross the border at will, he says. "Chaos at the border and the resultant smuggling of weapons and infiltration of terrorist jihadist groups is the biggest threat to regional security and the internal stability of North African countries," the Libyan blogger tells Magharebia. Lawlessness on the shared border with Libya has dragged Tunisia into a tunnel difficult to exit, political activist Ahmed Inoubli agrees. Extremist groups move easily in the region, via mountainous, unpopulated terrain, he notes, adding that they are "benefiting from the expertise of smugglers" get around. In order to put an end to the infiltration of bully boyz and weapons, Tunisia just set up a buffer zone in the border triangle with Algeria and Libya. According to the Tunisian defence ministry front man, the idea for the militarised zone was a response to "growing security threats from terrorist organizations". "The activity of organised crime networks in the trade of weapons, ammunition, drugs and subsidised goods" and attacks on border security agents also prompted the decision to put the vast desert region under army command, Brigadier General Tawfiq Rahmouni said on September 6th. Algerian security services also gave their Tunisian counterparts a list of terror suspects who may attempt to enter the country for Eid al-Adha next month, Tunisie Numerique reported on September 9th. The alert followed the discovery of a letter from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) chief Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.... , who called for attacks on Tunisian cities to reduce pressure on the jihadists holed up in Jebel Chaambi. Algeria, meanwhile, is not taking any chances. It just deployed 3,000 more soldiers along its borders with Tunisia and Libya. |
| Posted by:Fred |