drugs and migrants across the desert for shipment to Europe, according
to sources in Timbuktu.
Smuggling operations are the financial backbone of Islamist groups
such as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim). Their total
territorial and economic control of the vast, hostile Sahara region is
dwarfing the impact of western military efforts, despite dozens of
French bombing raids and the deployment of close to 10,000 United
Nations peacekeepers in Mali,The Guardianreports.
On Sunday, a new armed group calling itself the Caliphate Soldiers in
Algeria (Jound al Khilafa fi Ard al Jazayer) announced it had split
with Aqim and sworn loyalty to Islamic State (Isis), fighting in Syria
and Iraq.
On the same day, a Chadian peacekeeper was killed and four others were
injured when their patrol vehicle hit a remote-controlled device near
Aguelhok, close to the Algerian border with northern Mali. He was the
eighth peacekeeper to be killed since the end of June, following a
surge of rocket, suicide bomb and landmine attacks, against nine
during the entire first year of the UN deployment in Mali.
Other evidence also points to the emboldening of jihadist groups. More
than 18 months after the start of French operations against Islamist
insurgents in northern Mali, militant groups are offering young men
monthly salaries of 300,000 CFA francs ($600, £370) - or 10 times
Mali's minimum wage - to become jihadi fighters.
One driver of a 10-ton desert-going lorry in Timbuktu said he had been
offered 7 million CFA to deliver 150kg of cocaine to Libya.
"You leave in a convoy of brand new fuel-injected petrol Toyota 4x4s,
with extra fuel tanks," the driver explained. "You are given a Thuraya
[satellite phone] and a Kalashnikov. The cocaine is in a spare tyre,
in the driver's seat, and tucked between the fuel tanks."
South American cocaine is smuggled through the desert along several
routes. In 2009, a burnt Boeing 727 was found in the desert near Gao
in north-eastern Mali. "Air Cocaine" was reported to have carried up
to 10 tons of cocaine.
"You travel in a convoy of up to 14 cars, and there are several
routes," the driver confirmed. "The one I know about runs through Gao,
Niger and Chad, to Libya. It is the same route that is used by
Africans wanting to get on boats to Europe.
"As payment, you get to choose between keeping the car and 7 million
CFA francs ($14,000). But it is dangerous, mainly because the drivers
turn on each other."
The driver, whose identity is being withheld for his protection, said
he began working the trans-Sahara run after tourists stopped coming to
Timbuktu in 2011, due to kidnap fears. "The first 1,000km to the salt
mines at Taoudenni take six days. There's me and a small crew of other
blacks. The boss is always an Arab; after a further two days, we reach
Algeria and he takes the wheel.
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