Definitely related to Libya -- a lot of people have returned from Libya to the Adrar Ifoghas. Word on the street is there's loads of people in the mountains, with guns. Everyone in Kidal is a bit shaken up right now, the town is dead, no concerts, people are laying low. A faction of the returnees are seeking to restart the rebellion -- the old idea of an independent state of Azawad.

It's not unlikely though, when you have a flood of people coming into the country, right out of fighting a war, they're young, they're hyped up, and they have weapons, that there's a few bandits in the bunch -- that either hooked with AQMI or are snatching up tourists to sell to AQMI. What's most curious about this is tribal divisions. If they are Tuareg who do this, they don't have any alliance to the Kel Ansar of Timbouctou -- this is kind of a direct action against the Kel Ansar -- who basically run the Festival Au Desert -- because it's going to destroy the festival, at the very least for this year (the festival is held a five minute walk from Hotel Amanar).

It's unfortunate that this is happening, and hopefully after awhile things will settle down back into that normalcy. For the moment, travel in the North is going to be difficult -- all the foreigners were evacuated from Timbouctou, flown to Bamako, and I imagine anyone trying to gallivant around the desert is going to run into similar problems (I was held in Niafounke for a few hours in June -- I'll be back in a few months with more updates).

Rule of thumb and take home message is: if you have a gun pointed at you, do what the kidnappers say. Especially these kids from Libya -- they've just seen action, and apparently they wont hesitate to shoot you. So go along, and hope for the best.

chris