Arms in and Around Mauritania

📖 The Scoop

Mauritania shares more than 5,000 km of land borders with Algeria, Mali, Senegal, and Western Sahara (CIA, 2009). The greater part of the country lies within the Sahara desert and is relatively uncontrolled, which means that Mauritania has long been an ideal trade route for many goods, both legal and illicit. Consequently, it has become an important hub for cigarette smuggling, particularly en route to Algeria (ICG, 2007a, p. 19). It is also crossed by drug traffickers, whose business has increased considerably in the region since 2006 (Janeʹs, 2007). Small arms are included among the goods raded illicitly across the Sahel and Mauritania (Florquin et Pézard, 2006, p. 61). This trafficking is sometimes closely linked to the activities of various non-state armed groups, which have been operating for varying lengths of time in the region. One of these groups, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), became al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2007 and has been carrying out attacks in Mauritania for several years ... . These recent developments in the security situation highlight the need to examine the sources and destinations of arms circulating in Mauritania and in the rest of the Sahel region. -- From Introduction (pages 1-2).

Genre: No Category (fancy, right?)