With RPGs but not necessarily a sign of terrorist activity (depending on your definition).

That AQ has left Mauretania alone for five years doesn't mean there isn't anything going on. The other day, a Maure businessman was kidnapped by Sahraouis, and not released until they were paid a ransom by his mother, Mariam Bouchraya who happens to be the mayor of Fderik.

Presumably some unsavoury business going wrong and someone not being paid.
According to POLISARIO «dettes impayées entre commerçants»
Kidnapping du fils de la Maire de F’Derick :Les derniers developpements (vidéo) | Adrar Info
Quand le Polisario justifie le kidnapping et le rançonnage d’un homme d’affaires mauritanien | www.le360.ma (Moroccan)
F’dèrick/ LES Ravisseurs du commerçant ould Levdil localisés à 150 km de Bir Mogrein. – Zouerate Actu

Interesting NYT article on the new CIA drone base in Dirkou. Works under different (more opaque) rules than the army one in Agadez.

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One wonders if they are in some form of competition with each other. Different missions, but both with an eye on Libya.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/mi...-tunisia-31492

As chaos spreads, there's a countermovement in the Sahel and elsewhere, salafists denouncing jihadists and reaching out to sufis.
https://www.themaydan.com/2018/10/em...africa-beyond/

DGSE director Benjolet confirms many of our suspicions regarding Algeria in a new book
Bouteflika, Toufik, Belmokhtar, Iyad Ag Ghali and more.
Was Jeremy Keenan right all along?
B. Bajolet: le chef jihadiste Iyad Ag Ghali «bénéficie de certaines protections» - RFI

Fyi, I have moved a few posts and created a similar thread to this one for West Africa in the sub-Sahara forum: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...n-travel-97070

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France claims to have taken out #2 in the Sahara jihad hierarchy
the emir Yahya Abou el Hamame
Mali : Paris annonce avoir tué un des principaux chefs djihadistes au Sahel
https://twitter.com/menastream
north of Tombouctoo

Quite good news from Algeria, wrt AQIM:
https://ctc.usma.edu/aqim-pleads-relevance-algeria/

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Thanks Chris for that, very interesting.
Just hoping we can "soon" go back travelling in Algerian Sahara, but…
RR

A very interesting article about the quality and quantity of weapons awash across parts of Mali and Niger:

https://www.calibreobscura.com/dange...f-iswa-part-2/

This came up in one of the Africa FB groups, thought it might be of interest here

https://www.ecfr.eu/mena/sahel_mappi...nHcJGMw2a84uk8

Came across this old NYT article which includes rare video shot by the abductors in 2003.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/w...ing-video.html

Attached Thumbnails

 

 

 

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Thanks, interesting, but I'm little surprised that Agadez , Arlit and Diffa are out of Djihadist group's influence according to these maps.
RR.

I posted that article from NYTimes when it came out.
I was thinking - if there was a moment that came to decide the future of tourism in the Sahara, that was it.
But Bertrand had it removed.

"Originally Posted by Bertrand
I really- having tried very hard- cannot see the point of creating a thread containing a video clip said to be 13 years old and containing absolutely no useful traveller information whatsoever-

and it is not the first time either..."

So we weren't allowed to discuss it. Maybe now when 16 years have passed we can?

Thanks for originally posting.
I sent you a PM suggesting how to do it better next time ;-)

Yes, the link to the article is only of historic interest, but for many of us, it marked the beginning of the end of a lifetime's desert travelling in places we knew very well. And if you came close to it and knew some of the people involved (as with me), it has added poignancy.
Plus, as the reporter notes, this key event introduced the whole kidnap-for-ransom enterprise in the Sahara which continues today. I just read that a Nigerienne politician (or similar) may have been behind the Abalak abduction in 2016 in a bid to cover the cost of a consignment of his cocaine that went missing in Mali.

And, I did not know that the vile Abu Zeid was in on 2003, along with the mysterious El Para.

Fyi, the now-prize-winning reporter, Rukmini Callimachi, became well-known for her NYT Caliphate [ISIS] podcast last year.

Don't know if I mentioned it here before but a while back I copied some Motorrad (German moto mag) articles from 2004 by Rainer Bracht (who we met two-weeks before he was grabbed with 3 others we also met). He wrote a book on the ordeal (not read it).
I see now the original Motorrad files are long gone*, but I copied the Google translations and a few pics into a post which make interesting reading.

* Actually, found them again