Not all that glitters..and gold

Image source

Revenues from gold rises in Mali along with its price while famine threatens the region and trouble rumbles in from the north in the form of rebel soldiers, the Algerian army (there to help Mali?) and Libyan defectors.  Not the best start to 2012 in Mali - here's hoping things get better before they get worse.

Glad I brushed up on Algeria since it features so prominently in recent Malian events.  I still have a lot to learn, though!

Although Algeria's constitution forbids its forces from taking part in military action outside its own territory, the constitution, in practice, is used more as a pretext to justify not sending its military outside its borders. For instance, it is this aspect of the constitution that Algeria has been continually invoking over the last couple of years to explain why its forces have not crossed into Mali to obliterate AQIM, even when invited to do so by its Sahelian neighbours (Niger, Mali and Mauritania), with whom it set up a joint military command in April 2010 for precisely this purpose.

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The reason why Algerian forces have hitherto desisted from going into Mali to root out AQIM cannot therefore be because of the constitution. The real reason is that the AQIM in the Sahara-Sahel is a predominantly Algerian construct. source

The series of terrorist groups, or names of various terrorist groups, in the north of Mali is dizzying.  Sounds like a tricky path ahead for Algerian/US relations if Algeria is backing (and/or is?) AQIM and the US is engaging in counterterrorism....  Tricky pickle much?

Africa from A-Z: Algeria

A goal of mine for 2012 is to learn more about the countries in Africa (and around the world!).  I will do this by writing a blog post each week about a country in Africa.  54 countries.  52 weeks (two countries/weeks will be extra special!).  And I will blog about them alphabetically.  I still need to work out some of the kinks about how I will post but here goes for my first country!

I always wonder about Algeria since I do not hear much about it and it is right above Mali.  What happens there?  Does anyone visit?  Doesn't sound like much after the war in 1992.  From my brief perusing it seems like a key country to know more about if I want to dig deeper into what decolonization was like in Africa since it was colonized by France for over 120 years.  It is also the largest country in Africa (and the Arab world and the Mediterranean, for that matter) and has a snazzy 4-mile, much anticipated, metro system.  Also, Algeria cares about the bid for Western Sahara's independence.  Does anyone else?

From around the web:
A zine about Algeria.  An unlined journal.  I would love to have this journal, too!  And a light switch! 

Books: The Stranger by Albert Camus. 
Movies: The Battle of Algiers - and here. 
Music.  Mohammed Lamine.

Image source. 

What do you think about Algeria?  Any tips for how to organize this feature?