Libyan conflict casts shadow

Considering the increased possibility that Boko Haram will ally with Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a branch of the Al-Qaida network in North Africa whose activities have ranged from Algeria to Mali, Mauritania and Nigeria, and its further extension into the Sahara Desert, the organization will pose a severe challenge to Africa's peace, security and stability.

No group has claimed responsibility for the Algerian attack and it is unclear what the explicit motive behind it was, but one thing is certain: someone wanted to create chaos in Algeria to extend the smoke of gunpowder from Libya westward to Algeria.

Since the capture of Tripoli, Western media have not stopped speculating on who the next target of the "Arab Revolution" will be. Algeria, the news outlets have speculated, will become the next target given that it has faced numerous challenges similar to those faced by Gadhafi's regime.

Early this year, the Algerian people went to the street in protest against rising prices and to call for political reforms. However, demonstrators expressed their appeals in a rational manner and the Algerian government made a timely response, which prevented peaceful demonstrations from escalating into large-scale social unrest. The reason for this is that the Algerian people still remember their country's election in the early 1990s, which almost brought Islamist forces to power.

Later, the Algerian military reversed the situation, but this caused more than 150,000 deaths and plunged the country and its people into a decade-long era of horror.

Terrorists always try to utilize to a maximum the unique environment in Africa, including chaotic borders between countries, regional conflicts, loose financial institutions and the abundance of weapons, to develop and expand their networks and bases.

Relevant countries should remain particularly cautious of the possible spreading of terrorism in African countries and prevent the continent's peace and security from falling prey to the Libya war at a time when they are struggling to gain bigger interests for themselves from Libya's post-war reconstruction and its rich oil industry.

The author is a researcher with Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 09/03/2011 page5)