Terrible things are happening in the Arab North, and the rest of
Africa south of the Sahara desert, aka sub-Saharan Africa, doesn’t seem
to be interested or bothered.
The biggest mess is happening in Libya.
To begin with, it is no longer clear who is in
charge in Libya. In a chaotic session, the interim parliament, the
General National Congress, a few days ago elected businessman Ahmed
Miitig as the new prime minister. The dozens of militias in Libya have
rejected Miitig.
Then the other day gunmen attacked his home. He escaped unhurt.
The old premier, Abdullah al-Thani, who at first
looked like he would leave and allow Miitig to rule, has now changed his
mind and decided to linger as PM.
Enter rogue former general Khalif Haftar. He has
raised a formidable army and is launching attacks on Islamists groups
all over the country, most intensely in Benghazi. He even has a private
air force.
The place is falling apart. There are probably
more weapons and bombs in Libya than people, in the inevitable crisis
that has followed the grim end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule two years ago.
Hundreds of people have been killed. The country
is broke, and things are getting worse by the day. The US has cut and
run, telling its citizens to leave.
In neighbouring, more peaceful Tunisia, there is
reason to be nervous. A few days ago, four Tunisian police officers were
killed in what authorities called a “terrorist” attack on the home of
Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou.
Since late 2012, security forces have been
battling dozens of militants hiding out in the remote Mount Chaambi
region. Authorities say the militants are linked to Al Qaeda.
We know Egypt and the Egyptians better. They drink
our water from the Nile. We play football with them, and their
elections are similar to ours. At the start the week, they held a
presidential election.
Former military chief Field Marshal Abdul Fattah
al-Sisi won it handily. Remember, last July, Sisi overthrew the
democratically elected president of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s
Mohamed Morsy.
He jailed him, and the worst political violence in
recent Egyptian history followed. Anyway, Sisi put the election
machinery together, retired from the army, stood and won the vote.
That is very familiar in the rest of Africa. We understand that.
If Libya, or pre-Sisi Egypt, were elsewhere in
Africa, we would have pressured the African Union to send a peacekeeping
force there. So why don’t we?
0 comments:
Post a Comment