Zawaya

Ransom is the oxygen of terrorist activity

By: Mahmoud Belhimer

A sound approach on this issue compels us to understand first of all that the terrorist threat is not a mere Algerian matter, but it is purely a cross-border phenomenon, that has the same level of risk and sensitivity for all the five Arab Maghreb countries, as well as sub-Saharan countries.

The proof is that terrorists who are active in the desert move with their elements and gear, breaching the borders of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Chad and Niger altogether… and that active groups in the region include elements from the Arab Maghreb and sub-Saharan countries.

This means that facing the terrorist threat should be carried out according to a joint effort based on a lot of coordination between the Arab Maghreb countries, which lives up to the level of risk. The efforts of the Algerian authorities to stop ransom payment to terrorists should be part of this course.

If we analyze this type of terrorist activity in the south, which is based on kidnapping foreigners then demanding a ransom from western countries, we would find that such an activity has had an upward trend since the incident of kidnapping 32 European tourists in the spring of 2003 (of German, Austrian, Swiss and Dutch nationalities), and what followed it of talks on ransoms payment with the kidnappers, as terrorist groups have found that to be the easiest way to ensure intensive funding for their activities.

Ransom money is considered like oxygen doses to revive the terrorist activity once again in the southern Sahara, and even in the north, as these funds are used to buy arms and ammunition, and to finance the recruitment of new terrorist elements and even suicide bombers. As it is said: “Money is the sinew of war”, and terrorist groups have found in ransoms an easy way to ensure their funding.

Ransom payment might solve the problem of an abducted western tourist, or a number of tourists, but it aborts the programs and efforts that are carried out on the ground to eliminate terrorist activity radically and to essentially cut off its sources of funding again. On the other hand, since the terrorists discovered that western governments are willing to pay large sums of money for the release of one of their citizens, they had gone to this type of activity as a new method to sustain terrorist activity, particularly in the Sahara, where controlling the movements of terrorist groups is a complex issue for all countries of the Arab Maghreb.

According to this perspective, the behavior of some European countries with respect to ransom payment for the safety of their citizens seems to be against the international obligations in the fight against terrorism!

But as long as the battlefield is the Maghreb region and the Sahel countries, then – and in addition to the diplomatic effort at the international level – the five countries should be in line with their counterparts in the South on security coordination plans and the exchange of information regarding the movement of terrorists and their relations with smuggling professionals and the populations of the areas they frequent.

This coordination will be successful if all Maghreb countries overcame the level of political discourse, and believed that the terrorist threat is not limited to one specific country on its own, but is a threat to everyone, and winning over it cannot be achieved without the efforts of all.