Frederick Vreeland, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East and South Asia affairs and former US ambassador to Morocco, has an op-ed in the March 3 New York Times on the usually obscure crisis in Western Sahara,… Read moreWestern Sahara makes NYT op-ed page —but not Sahrawi perspective
Morocco has announced it will present an autonomy plan for Western Sahara to the United Nations next month in hopes of ending the three-decade conflict. The plan would give the occupied territory a parliament, a chief of state, cabinet and… Read moreWestern Sahara: Morocco proposes autonomy
On Feb. 27, the Polisario Front’s special mine action team destroyed 3,321 anti-personnel mines in Tifariti, Western Sahara. This was the Polisario Front’s second stockpile destruction since it signed the “Deed of Commitment for Adherence to a Total Ban on… Read morePolisario Front destroys landmines; Morocco holds out
An Algerian army captain was killed Feb. 28 and another officer seriously injured in an attack near the village of Ain Rich, outside the city of Djelfa. Officials said the Mohadjrine Falange, a wing of the Salafist Group for Preaching… Read moreAlgeria: Salafists escalate attacks
Some long-belated progress in the struggle of another stateless ethnicity left off the map in the colonial and post-colonial carve-ups. From Reuters, Feb. 21: ALGIERS – The Malian government and Tuareg rebels agreed on Tuesday to start implementing an Algerian-brokered… Read moreMali: Tuareg rebels agree to disarm
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC by its French initials) has been very busy lately. With little note in the world media, Tunisia last month apparently squelched a plot to attack the US and British embassies. It ended… Read moreNYT: North Africa “staging ground for terror”
We’re glad the hijacking was thwarted, but we don’t quite get the politics behind this incident. The hijacker was supposedly seeking asylum from Mauritania (which remains a pretty oppressive place despite the democratic transition supposedly underway there), but Mauritania said… Read moreMysterious Mauritanian hijacking thwarted
From Afrol News, Dec. 11: An Algiers bomb attack against oil workers that killed an Algerian driver and wounded nine people, including several Western citizens, has raised fears that Algeria’s trend towards peace and stability may end. As the US… Read moreAlgeria: Salafists target Halliburton
Note the rather ironic last line of this account. Perhaps the real lesson US war-makers failed to glean from Pontecorvo’s film was, “Stay out—its hopeless.” From Italy’s AKI news agency, Oct. 13: Gillo Pontecorvo, one of Italy’s leading filmmakers renowned… Read more“Battle of Algiers” director passes, lessons unheeded
This hero of the left has again revealed himself as fundamentally reactionary. Those with any familiarity with the struggle in Western Sahara know that talk about opposing the “partition of Morocco” is akin to opposing Israeli withdrawal from “Judea and… Read moreGeorge Galloway betrays Western Sahara
From AP via Qatar’s The Peninsula, Sept. 15 (link added): PARIS — Al Qaeda has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against… Read moreAl-Qaeda announces merger with Algeria’s Salafist Group
Islamist guerillas are stepping up attacks in Algeria, apparently led by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has rejected an amnesty offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to try to end more than a decade of violence. On… Read moreAlgeria: guerilla resurgence
