News from Algeria 2006

[Al-khiyal]

PARIS - Al-Qaida has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against French and American interests.

Current and former French officials specializing in terrorism said Thursday that an al-Qaida alliance with the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials GSPC, was cause for concern.

"We take these threats very seriously," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said, adding in an interview on France-2 television that the threat to France was "high" and "permanent," and that "absolute vigilance" was required.

Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced the "blessed union" in a video posted this week on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

France's leader have repeatedly warned that the decision not to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq would not shield the country from Islamic terrorism. French participation in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon could give extremists another reason to strike.

The national police had no immediate comment on the announced alliance, but officials have long regarded the GSPC as one of the main terror threats facing France.

French experts agreed, but also noted the group has been severely weakened by internal divisions, security crackdowns and defections in Algeria, a former French territory still working to put down an Islamic insurgency that reached its most murderous heights in the 1990s.

"The GSPC is losing speed and has suffered very significant losses in recent months," said Louis Caprioli, former assistant director of France's DST counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency.

Some GSPC fighters took advantage of a recent Algerian amnesty for Islamic insurgents and others have been killed, said Caprioli, who works for Geos, a risk management firm.

Of the 800 combatants that GSPC was estimated to have had last year, probably no more than 500 remain, and the group has had no operational cells in France since the late 1990s, he said.

But Caprioli and others also said an alliance of GSPC and al-Qaida could increase the terror risk for France _ not least because al-Zawahri's designation of the country as a worthy target could inspire extremists to take action.

In his video, Al-Zawahri hailed "the joining up" of the GSPC with al-Qaida as "good news."

"All the praise is due to Allah for the blessed union which we ask Allah to be as a bone in the throats of the Americans and French Crusaders and their allies, and inspire distress, concern and dejection in the hearts of the traitorous, apostate sons of France," he said.

"We ask him (Allah) to guide our brothers in the Salafist Group for Call and Combat to crush the pillars of the Crusader alliance, especially their elderly immoral leader, America."

Although GSPC leaders had previously sworn allegiance to al-Qaida, al-Zawahri's video marked the first al-Qaida recognition of a union between the two, French terror experts said.

"From now on, the links are official, legitimate, and they are taking part in the same combat," said Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East who runs the Paris-based consultancy Terrorisc.

Sarkozy said it was "not by chance" that al-Qaida used the emblematic Sept. 11 date to announce the insurgency movement's alliance with al-Qaida.

"But there is nothing new," he added, noting that the GSPC had done the same three years ago.

The GSPC, in its own statement on a Web site used by militants, confirmed the alliance and urged other militant groups to also join al-Qaida.

Giudicelli said the alliance could act as a green light for al-Qaida and GSPC militants to operate together and thus raises the risk for France.

"The Americans have become harder to target domestically, so they are trying to widen the field of action and strike their allies," she said.

Al-Qaida joins Algerians against France

[Al-khiyal]

Algiers – The Algerian military police confiscated over 51mn dinar (about $708 000) in fake banknotes, police sources said on Thursday.

The police seized the money in the east of Algeria at a road block this week. Three suspects were arrested, but it was believed that a syndicate was still at large.

The police said the suspects were trying to smuggle the forged notes into the Algerian market.

Algerian cops seize $700 000 in fake money

[Mnarvi-DZ]

The police seized the money in the east of Algeria at a road block this week.

It actually happened in Oran, Western DZ.
Businessinafrica must have its head up side down

[Al-khiyal]

It actually happened in Oran, Western DZ.
Businessinafrica must have its head up side down

Indeed, I notice the report actually says that the money was seized at a toad block but as I could find no confirmation elsewhere about any security drive against amphibians I amended it.

[Al-khiyal]

The European Commission has adopted a new decision of €10 million to provide basic assistance for the Sahrawi refugees living in camps in south-west Algeria. The funds, channelled through the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel, will cover the provision of food, water and other essential services.

For more than 30 years, the refugees from Western Sahara have been living in camps near Tindouf in Algeria. They depend entirely on international aid for their survival. The Commission is the largest donor assisting the victims of this long-running crisis. Under the decision announced today, projects will be funded in the following areas:

Food

60% of the funds will cover food supplies. Basic food aid is managed by Non Governmental Organisations and the World Food Programme (WFP), one of ECHO's main operational partners in the region. The UN agency provides a food package ensuring a daily intake of 2100 kcal per refugee. The decision contributes to the WFP programme with financing for the purchase of basic food and for the maintenance of a buffer stock designed to maintain regular food deliveries to the refugees. The funding also covers fresh food (fruit and vegetables throughout the year, and meat and other products during Ramadan) to ensure that the refugees, women and children in particular, receive a nutritionally balance diet.

Water and sanitation, health and education

The remainder of the funding targets basic services. In the desert area where the refugees are located, meeting water needs is a major challenge that will continue to be addressed. Health and hygiene are also priorities with general support for the health system including the purchase of medicines, actions for handicapped people and the distribution of hygiene products – especially for women. In long-term refugee situations such as this, education is also a basic need that will be covered.

Complementing the emergency aid of €900,000 provided in February 2006 in response to the flash floods that brought devastation to the refugees camps, further shelter activities will be also funded.

The new support represents the continuing expression of European solidarity with the victims of this 'forgotten crisis'. Including the amount under the present decision, the Commission has, since 1993, provided aid worth more than €128 million to the Sahrawi refugees.

Humanitarian aid: new €10 million decision for Sahrawi refugees in Algeria

[Al-khiyal]

ALGERIA, Sep. 14 (Saba)- The speaker of the Algerian People's National Council, Ammar Sa'dani met here on Thursday the Yemeni ambassador to Algeria, Ahmed Abdullah. During the meeting, they discussed the relations and means of enhancing mutual cooperation between the two countries. They also talked about issues of common concern.

Yemeni-Algerian ties discussed

[Al-khiyal]

"A third former prisoner, a 37-year-old Algerian, had come to fight the Russian-backed government in Afghanistan in the early 1990s. He married a Pakistani woman and claimed to have settled down and worked in the honey business when he was arrested last year.

"I am going home to Algeria as I want to take advantage of an amnesty offered by the government,'' he said. "I know I will be arrested on arrival and interrogated as this happened to several of my Algerian brothers. But then I will be released as I have done nothing wrong.''

U.S. anger as Musharraf releases thousands of militants: Released Taliban fighters wait to be repatriated