In the past decades, increasing instability in the Sahel, Sahara
and Lake Chad has been a source of growing concern in Europe and the United
States. Weakness of state control on these areas allowed Al-Qaeda (AQIM) and
other Jihadist groups to establish their influence and establish safe haven.
As in the past, governments are tempted to use Jihadist
group and organized crime as a political resource by allowing their allies to
benefit from criminal activities, which has clear implication for policy and
the region’s instability. The importance of organized criminal activities in
the Sahel, Sahara and Lake Chad regions stems from the fact that there are few
alternative activities that produce profits and rapid enrichment. Repeated
hostage takings have caused tourism on the Sahel and the Sahara to collapse,
thereby further limiting opportunities for employment and profit outside
criminal activities.
Kidnapping for ransom has developed into a highly lucrative
industry that has allowed AQIM and ISWA (Islamic States of West Africa) Boko
Haram and Ansaru become a significant political and military force.
Extrapolating from available information, the income drive
by AQIM, MUJAO, Boko Haram and associated mediators is likely to total $100
million dollars since 2008, paid mostly by western and Nigerian governments.
Reports of ransom payment are never officially confirmed by
the government concerned and media reports vary on the amount involved,
although most range between $1.5 million and $4 million per hostage. The only
reliable information in this respect came from the Swiss.
In 2009, the Swiss government authorized the use of $5
million in relation to the negotiations over the release of three of its
nationals of which $2 million appears to have been set aside for the ransom
payments. Since 2009, the Swiss have perfected the art of private diplomacy to
offer themselves as “neutral interlocutors” in many of Africa’s conflicts. That
also comes with a price, but one has attracted and discomforted European and US
governments is the so called “mediations, ceasefire and release of 105 Dapchi
school girls.”
The puzzle and the jigsaw was the manner of the abduction
and release. Boko Haram are keeping in their custody one of the Christian girl
among the 110 Dapchi school girls they abducted, Leah Sharibu has refused to
renounce her faith. However western intelligence sources believe Boko Haram and
the mediators Swiss and Nigerians are asking the Nigerian government for more
money to pay ransom and further release of six high profile Barnawi faction
detainees in the custody of Directorate of State Service. This is creating
discomfort.
The Swiss intelligence officer, Pascal Holliger along with
local accessories, Mustapha Zannah, a lawyer who runs a private school in
Maiduguri that gives free education to the orphan-children of Boko Haram fighters
— the school was established and funded by the International Islamic Relief
Organisation, a Saudi-based charity organization, on United States Department’s
list of charities with ties to terrorist organisations and Aisha Wakil,
facilitated the ransom payment of €5million euro and swap of detained top Boko
Haram commanders .
On the 8th March 2012 a faction of Boko Haram Ansaru
(Barnawi) killed two western hostages in the Northern Nigerian city of Sokoto,
a British quantity surveyor Chris Mcmanus and an Italian Engineer Franco
Lamolinara. This was after British Foreign and Commonwealth Office had paid the
sum of more than One Million Pound to Mustapha Chafi to facilitate the release
of the hostages. The failure of ransom talk with Chafi according to our source
was because the money was tempered with by the mediators.
Despite claim of ceasefire talks between Nigerian government
and Boko Haram (Barnawi Faction) affiliated to ISIS or ISWA the attacks has
remain unrelenting.
Will the specially designated global terrorist Khalid
Al Barnawi accused of killing ten westerners be part of the
exchange swap? The UK,US,EU and UN are watching. One western diplomat said:
“actors involved in the fraudulent negotiations with terrorists are currently
wielding decisive political and military positions in Nigeria and are
influential players in the security sector.”
*Mcgregor, an expert in global security and intelligence.
•Courtesy http://newsplusviews.news. Mcgregor, an expert in global security and intelligence.
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