Dakar to Riyadh: Links for 9/13/2014

News and analysis from the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn, and the Middle East.

Last week’s roundup can be found here.

General

The United States now officially supports adding seats to the United Nations Security Council, including “two permanent seats…for African countries.” Reuters explains why this isn’t necessarily altruism: “The move comes as the U.S. seeks to repair ties with Africa, where many are unhappy about Washington's support for Israel's war in Gaza” - and many other issues too, one might add.

The FT did a joint interview with CIA Director William Burns and MI6 head Richard Moore. They talk about various issues include Russia/Ukraine, but there is a segment on Israel and Palestine from approximately 26:30-38:00. Africa does not receive much mention in the interview.

Sahel and West Africa

Severe flooding continues - in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, waters breached the Alau Dam and floods have affected perhaps a quarter million people or more. BBC Hausa shows the devastation in photos. The Nigerian authorities appear to be taking the situation very seriously; I wonder if they see their credibility on the line. Elsewhere in the region, flooding has affected Mali, Niger, Chad, Algeria, Morocco, and beyond.

Senegalese President Diomaye Faye dissolved the National Assembly and set November 17 as the date for new legislative elections.

A new report from the Timbuktu Institute: “Au-delà de la criminalité : Perceptions juvéniles de la radicalisation et de l’extrémisme violent au Nord du Bénin [Beyond Criminality: Youth Perceptions of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in the North of Benin].” As the title indicates, the authors warn that a “criminological approach” to understanding jihadism in Benin could lead to repeating errors from failed Sahel policies of the past.

Madina Thiam on the Malian feminist and Marxist Bintou Sanankoua, “A Woman at the Heart of History.”

The Nigerian journalist Ahmad Salkida reflects on his reporting, his serious brushes with the Nigerian security state, and his cofounding of the media outlet HumAngle:

It was supposed to be a general interest publication. Still, considering my long and rough experience with the Nigerian security sector, the escalating insecurity across the country, and the media blackhole surrounding various dimensions of the conflicts, it made more sense for it to be a niche platform. 

So, when I, together with Dr Obiora Chukwumba, founded HumAngle, the focus was to produce a unique platform that would predominantly report insecurity and conflict, starting with the Lake Chad countries.

Also at HumAngle this week: Abiodun Jamiu on “Why Reactionary Fights Against Terrorism May Fail In North West Nigeria.”

North Africa

Algeria’s presidential elections took place on September 7, and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune received nearly 95% of the official vote. News outlets are still attempting to assess what the turnout was; some estimates range very low indeed. I wrote up my thoughts on the elections here. Intriguingly, Tebboune himself has joined the opposition in questioning the integrity of the results - the Associated Press parses developments here.

Next up on the electoral calendar is Tunisia, with presidential elections on October 6. President Kais Saied has replaced/appointed governors for all of the country’s 24 governorates.

The prominent Tunisian lawyer Sonia Dahmani lost her appeal and received an eight-month prison sentence for criticizing the president.

Atalayar profiles Moroccan intelligence chief Abdellatif Hammouchi.

Hazem Tharwat at Mada Masr: “Après le déluge, the Haftars.” One passage:

In the weeks before the anniversary of the worst climate change disaster in the region, Hamad al-Shalawi, a member of Libyan parliamentary crisis committee tasked with overseeing the situation in Derna, underlined this fact, saying that no amount of money had been released from the budget earmarked for reconstruction by the World Bank, the EU, the House of Representatives and the Government of National Unity, estimated at US$15 billion. 

Who is responsible for this? According to Shalawi, it is the “General Leadership”— the foreboding epithet that describes the family of Khalifa Haftar — whose promises of reconstruction have not been realized for unknown reasons, while the Libya Development and Reconstruction Fund created in the aftermath of the flood has undertaken large-scale projects through national and Egyptian companies which did not participate in the reconstruction conference. 

Greater Horn of Africa

AFP:

Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said his government was offering to operate its port of Tadjoura jointly with Ethiopia, but denied it was planning to hand it over completely.

[…]

The Ethiopian prime minister had warned Sunday that his country would "humiliate" any nation that threatens its sovereignty, after Addis Ababa accused unnamed actors of seeking to "destabilise" the Horn of Africa.

The comments came after Cairo -- which has long had fraught relations with Addis Ababa over Ethiopia's mega-dam on the Blue Nile -- last month sent military equipment to Somalia.

International Crisis Group has a new report on Islamic State-Somalia. I find the tone a little breathless, I have to say. An excerpt:

Global jihadism may have found a new bastion. On 31 May, U.S. forces conducted an airstrike near Dhaardhaar, a remote town in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in north-eastern Somalia. U.S. attacks on militants in Somalia are not uncommon, though they are infrequent in the north. In the weeks after the strike, it emerged that the U.S. had set its sights on Abdulqadir Mumin, leader of the Islamic State in Somalia, who in a remarkable turn for this small branch of the jihadist group, may now be the Islamic State’s global leader (or caliph). Mumin survived, and his emergence as a key figure in the movement is likely to shine new light on the Somali affiliate and the role it plays as a node for the group’s many others. It should also spur the Somali government, Puntland’s administration and foreign partners to make more concerted efforts to row back the militant group’s activities, which requires that they do more to surmount divisions among Somali authorities.

The recommendations are also unimaginative, and very familiar from reports on other conflict theaters: “The Somali government and authorities in semi-autonomous Puntland should set aside their mutual mistrust to share intelligence and staunch the group’s funding, with support from Washington and other partners. Puntland should address grievances in the area where the group operates and keep a pathway open for its members to defect.”

Edith Lederer for the AP: “Sudan Accuses UAE of Arming Rivals and Prolonging War, UAE Accuses Sudan of Refusing to Talk Peace.”

DW: “How Does Ethiopia Remember Haile Selassie?”

Mashriq

AP: “US Cites Egypt’s Help in Gaza as Washington Sends Full Military Aid Despite Human Rights Concerns.”

Walaa Quisay at The Immanent Frame: “Carceral Afterlives: Recording My Father’s Prison Memoirs.” An excerpt:

I can recall perhaps three times I sat and spoke with my father about his time in Egyptian prisons. I was about five or six years old when I first heard the story. My mother and paternal grandmother were talking to each other as I was playing in the corner of the room. Casually, they relayed how he was beaten to the point where he would lose consciousness, only to be revived with water and beaten again. In winter, he’d wake up to the pool of blood and water in his cell. My grandmother recalled the arduous journeys she undertook, while pregnant, to bring him food and how the police officers taunted her. One day, visitation hours ended before she could see him, but she glimpsed him from the corner of her eye. She charged across the officers to embrace him, only to be hauled back. The next week in visitation, she saw her son broken and bruised. He was tortured for her infraction. I could never quite see that vulnerable teenager in my father, a man who I always felt was larger than life.

Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian makes his first foreign trip - to Iraq. Amwaj Media gives some context on Iran-Iraq relations. And Middle East Eye discusses how the trip is making Iranian Kurdish dissidents nervous.

Meanwhile - Timour Azhari for Reuters:

Iraq faces a budget crunch in 2025 due to the slump in the price of oil, the overwhelming source of government revenue, a top economic adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said.

[…]

[Mudher] Saleh said that paying salaries and pensions on time remain a top priority. They account for 90 trillion dinars ($69 billion), or over 40% of the budget, and are a key factor of social stability in Iraq.

"The government will pay salaries even if it costs everything. Salaries are holy in Iraq," he said.

Mohammad Ersan for Middle East Eye: “Jordan: Islamic Opposition Makes Large Gains in Parliamentary Elections.” Oraib Rantawi analyzes the result for Al Jazeera: “They supported Gaza so the voters supported them.”

Manaf Saad at al-Majalla (from August, but it was new to me this week): “Syria’s Oil Industry Was Once Booming. Could It Be Again?”

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “Israeli Forces Accused of Killing Their Own Citizens Under the 'Hannibal Directive' During October 7 Chaos.”

At Drop Site News, a “Note from Gaza” by Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif. An excerpt:

Of course, as I mentioned, the Israeli occupation was deliberately targeting journalists in a continuous way and we are now talking about close to 180 journalists that have been targeted in Gaza. It is clear that the Israeli occupation does not want the picture to get out, does not want the word to get out, it does not want us to document the crimes it is committing on our people, as what happened to our dear friend and colleague, the Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, after he was assassinated by the Israeli occupation as he was documenting what was happening and the crimes of the Israeli occupation — so the Israeli occupation targeted him in a direct way so that Ismail could not continue his coverage. But what the occupation does not know is that after Ismail was martyred, we, his journalist colleagues, are more determined to continue Ismail’s path and to convey Ismail’s message, despite the tragic circumstances and despite the threats and despite the danger of the situation.

International Crisis Group: “Stemming Israeli Settler Violence at Its Root.”