Terrorism. Piracy. Organized crime. Endemic corruption. These are things we associate with troubled areas in much of the world, however a lucrative trafficking route for all manner of illicit goods stretching from the West African coast all the way to the Mediterranean ports of North Africa may be the one place where all those factors combine into such a colossal clusterfuck.What makes this situation even more confounding is each of these viruses seems to be fueled by multiple factors, sometimes working in tandem and other times spinning on their own crazy axis away from one another like dust devils popping out of the sands of the Sahara.
A brief overview of these issues:
Piracy: In 2012, there were over 100 more maritime piracy incidents off the West African coast than there were in the waters off Somalia, an area which receives much more media attention when it comes to the issue. see link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22944460 As in Somalia, some of this has to do with overfishing by large commercial trawlers, most of whose catch becomes animal feed. I'm not going to go off on a tangent about how absurd it is that large agribusiness companies waste time importing that crap when we have more than enough soy and other products produced locally here in the US to use as protein in our pig and chicken feed, but it's certainly a valid point. Overfishing isn't anywhere near the main factor in this area, though. Oil is. Separatist groups and criminal gangs in Nigeria bring in millions selling stolen oil. The corrupt government of Equatorial Guinea brings in even more, enriching only themselves and an infinitesimal upper class while the majority of the population in a country that should be the African equivalent of Kuwait or Qatar lives in abject poverty. Where does the oil go? According to a 2012 report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20038724, the bulk of it ends up in either Eastern Europe or Singapore. It doesn't take a genius to see that as long as this racket is bringing in millions it will continue to grow. Certain analysts are also predicting many of these same groups will enlarge already profitable human trafficking operations as the economic situation in Brazil, only a short hop across the Atlantic, continues to improve.
Terrorism: At the moment, you'd be hard pressed to find a country in North Africa that isn't dealing with an Islamist insurgency. The problem isn't as pronounced in most of West Africa's coastal nations however in Nigeria, the economic hub of the whole region, the actions of a Taliban-like group called Boko Haram have turned the country's North into a war zone. They're against anything deemed Western influenced, and some of their most brutal attacks have targeted schools and churches. The recent civil wars and instability in nearby Libya and Mali, followed by mass looting of military facilities, have also made it much easier and cheaper for Boko Haram to acquire weapons. Not to mention that the country's border was already porous to begin with: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/05/how-al-qaeda-boko-haram-smuggle-arms-into-nigeria/
Further North in Algeria and Libya, the problem of Islamist infiltration has also been getting press as of late. A group known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has been gaining traction in the region over the past few years, and like Boko Haram the civil conflict recently plaguing the region has been a boon for them. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has it's roots in the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s where it began as a group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, GSPC for short and its rise to prominence has a lot to do with the issues involving organized crime outlined below. Its current de facto leader/spokesman is Mokhtar Belmokhtar. He's been part of the global Islamist movement since the '80s when he fought with the Afghan mujahideen, see link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23387147
The most obvious reason for increased Islamist activity in North Africa is a massive infusion of illicit money into the area. North Africa is now home to the world's most lucrative drug trafficking pipeline, and groups such as AQIM bring in millions providing protection along smuggling routes, and even engaging in trafficking themselves. Belmokhtar himself is widely referred to as "Mr. Marlboro" because of all the money he's made smuggling cigarettes into Europe. This brings us to the next problem:
Organized Crime: In the 1990s, just as the fall of Communism was unintentionally leading to a boom period for organized crime in Eastern Europe, drug trafficking organizations in South American countries such as Colombia and Peru who supplied the bulk of the world's cocaine were not only on the run from their own governments, but also the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. What followed was a mass migration of high profile members of South American cartels to Western Europe, in particular Spain see links:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8002367/Colombian-hit-men-blamed-for-200-murders-arrested-in-Spain.html
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=410695&CategoryId=12393
Along with those unsavory characters came their drugs, money and connections, and today the EU is an even more profitable cocaine market than the US is. See links:
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2012/09/feds_mexican_drug_cartel_was_building_europe_nh_pipeline
Unlike the trafficking routes along the US's southern border and through the Caribbean that are constantly disrupted by inter-cartel feuds, trafficking through West Africa into Europe is made possible by many disparate groups working together. The book McMafia by Misha Glenny describes how at a meeting on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten in the mid '90s involving high profile Russian gangsters, leaders of the major Italian mafias, and members of powerful Colombian cartels like the Norte Del Valle organization, ground rules were laid out and various agreements made which led to the globalization of organized crime. South American cocaine is brought to ports on Brazil's Atlantic coast, moved across the water to countries like Nigeria, and eventually makes its way through North Africa into EU nations, primarily Italy and Spain. Islamist groups that would kill a man for smoking hashish in public have no problem working hand in hand with the most unseemly of drug traffickers, because the amount of money they stand to make by doing so is so great. Even more distressing for the region is the new phenomenon of drug trafficking organizations based out of West Africa itself, which has been observed by Interpol and other arms of law enforcement:
At the end of the day, what really makes this possible is a demon that these countries have been dealing with long before drugs were a problem:
Corruption: In 2009,the President of Guinea-Bissau and the the country's top ranking General were assassinated on the same day. President Joao Bernando Vieira had accused General Batista Tagme Na Waie of being involved in drug trafficking during his election campaign a few months prior, and the men had a long-standing rivalry. In fact, shortly after the country's November 2008 election Waie narrowly escaped an earlier assassination attempt which he blamed on the President's personal militia. As more information came out about the assassinations, though, it became clear that the rivalry between the two men was less of a factor in their deaths than the increasing presence of Colombian cartel influence in Guinea-Bissau. Even before these events took place, Guinea-Bissau had been referred to as a "narco-state" by regional analysts and even the DEA. Following the death of these two men, even more cocaine started to flow into the country, and now the prevailing theory is that the assassinations were ordered from Colombia to help make that possible. Not only was the military junta that came into power in 2009 more amenable to the Colombians, they even started moving drugs themselves, see link:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/7/dea-breaks-suspected-colombiaguinea-bissau-drug-ri/
In the extreme case highlighted in the article above, the head of Guinea-Bissau's interim government and former head of its Navy was among those implicated in a scheme where surface-to-air missiles were traded for copious amounts of cocaine. Guinea-Bissau is far from the only West African state dealing with massive corruption, and it isn't always illicit goods that government officials are using to build their fortunes. In the case of neighboring Equatorial Guinea, a 2011 report by the US Department of Justice exposed embezzlement and fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars being perpetrated by Guinean diplomats currently living in the US. See link:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/31/equatorial-guinea-corruption-us-assets The most egregious perpetrator was the Prime Minister's eldest son, as shown in this excerpt from the link above: Investigators have focused particular attention on the actions of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (Teodorin), the eldest son of, and potential successor to, the country's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago, in power since 1979. The complaint seeks to seize a number of Teodorin's assets purchased in the US, including a $30m seaside mansion, a $38.5m Gulfstream jet, a $533,000 2011 Ferrari and more than $3m of Michael Jackson memorabilia. He is said to have purchased these goods using money obtained through corruption.
That particular report doesn't even take into account the Obiang family's considerable European assets, including a block of some of the most sought after real estate in central Paris which includes the mansion below.
As mentioned in the section on piracy, Equatorial Guinea's ruling elite has turned enriching themselves through their tiny nation's considerable oil, gas and timber reserves into a science. Really though, when it comes to corruption in West Africa, the area's largest economy, Nigeria, is king. The problem goes beyond the inner-workings of the government, after all this is where the famous "419 scam" originated. See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419_scam, this is an easy way to make money that criminals in neighboring countries like Ghana and Benin have also picked up on. 419 scams are small potatoes compared to the million and even billion dollar fraud and bribery schemes people within Nigeria's government tasked with promoting the public good have pulled off. The most recent case making the rounds in various new outlets African coverage involves a 1.3 billion dollar oil exploration deal involving Shell and formerly state-owned Italian oil giant ENI. See link: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/British-Police-Investigating-1.3-Billion-Shell-ENI-Nigerian-Oil-Bloc-Corruptio.html
Within this problem, in my opinion, lies the root of all the other problems in the region. Corruption has created an environment where lawlessness and terrorism were able to take root in Nigeria, and is now doing the same thing across a large swathe of the African continent. The governments of countries outside the region with economic interests there could help by making an effort to deal with their own problems regarding corruption and economic mismanagement as well. Corruption in Balkan countries like Bulgaria and Montenegro makes it possible for stolen oil to be refined there, and part of the reason stolen Nigerian oil so often ends up in Singapore is that nearby former net oil exporters like Malaysia and Indonesia still provide their citizens with unrealistic fuel subsidies that they show little sign of curbing yet know they can't afford. Until the small political and economic elite which alone is benefiting from the chaos across West Africa and the Maghreb wakes up and starts doing their job, or is removed from power in favor of someone who does it better, the area will continue to develop into the new center of transnational crime and terrorism.
Update: Proceeds from stolen oil in Nigeria continue to be laundered abroad:
The London-based think-tank Chatham House said Nigeria's oil was being looted on an "industrial scale".
Africa's biggest oil producer should be more proactive in sharing intelligence so foreign governments can help crack down on the organised crime, it said.
Losses account for 5% of Nigeria's total oil output, the report said.
Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24175264
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/7/dea-breaks-suspected-colombiaguinea-bissau-drug-ri/
In the extreme case highlighted in the article above, the head of Guinea-Bissau's interim government and former head of its Navy was among those implicated in a scheme where surface-to-air missiles were traded for copious amounts of cocaine. Guinea-Bissau is far from the only West African state dealing with massive corruption, and it isn't always illicit goods that government officials are using to build their fortunes. In the case of neighboring Equatorial Guinea, a 2011 report by the US Department of Justice exposed embezzlement and fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars being perpetrated by Guinean diplomats currently living in the US. See link:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/31/equatorial-guinea-corruption-us-assets The most egregious perpetrator was the Prime Minister's eldest son, as shown in this excerpt from the link above: Investigators have focused particular attention on the actions of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (Teodorin), the eldest son of, and potential successor to, the country's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago, in power since 1979. The complaint seeks to seize a number of Teodorin's assets purchased in the US, including a $30m seaside mansion, a $38.5m Gulfstream jet, a $533,000 2011 Ferrari and more than $3m of Michael Jackson memorabilia. He is said to have purchased these goods using money obtained through corruption.
That particular report doesn't even take into account the Obiang family's considerable European assets, including a block of some of the most sought after real estate in central Paris which includes the mansion below.
Within this problem, in my opinion, lies the root of all the other problems in the region. Corruption has created an environment where lawlessness and terrorism were able to take root in Nigeria, and is now doing the same thing across a large swathe of the African continent. The governments of countries outside the region with economic interests there could help by making an effort to deal with their own problems regarding corruption and economic mismanagement as well. Corruption in Balkan countries like Bulgaria and Montenegro makes it possible for stolen oil to be refined there, and part of the reason stolen Nigerian oil so often ends up in Singapore is that nearby former net oil exporters like Malaysia and Indonesia still provide their citizens with unrealistic fuel subsidies that they show little sign of curbing yet know they can't afford. Until the small political and economic elite which alone is benefiting from the chaos across West Africa and the Maghreb wakes up and starts doing their job, or is removed from power in favor of someone who does it better, the area will continue to develop into the new center of transnational crime and terrorism.
Update: Proceeds from stolen oil in Nigeria continue to be laundered abroad:
The London-based think-tank Chatham House said Nigeria's oil was being looted on an "industrial scale".
Africa's biggest oil producer should be more proactive in sharing intelligence so foreign governments can help crack down on the organised crime, it said.
Losses account for 5% of Nigeria's total oil output, the report said.
Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24175264
Great news blog
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