Analysis

Power in Algeria is opaque. Although individuals’ official positions are known, it is less known how much power they actually have and how decisions are actually taken. Often times, an individual’s power is not reflected in his or her official position. Instead, political power and the ability to take decisions is determined by an individual’s informal network.

In a communiqué on 8 May, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) explicitly mentioned Mauritania among the countries that it encouraged its members and supporters to attack. Or rather it urged them to attack foreign companies in Mauritania, and especially those perfidious French ones. Most of the communiqué was boilerplate al-Qaeda messaging. Tyrannical regimes. Corrupt corporations. Pillaged resources. Injustice. Fard al-kifâya (فرض الكفاية). Jihad. Yada yada. But the mention of Mauritania was odd and merits further analysis.

A couple weeks ago, North Africa Risk Consulting spoke with its most trusted Islamic State source. The source detests the Islamic State with a passion that only someone who's suffered from its atrocities can, but at the same time the source is the most level-headed, least alarmist Islamic State analyst NARCO knows. The subject was Libya and the status of the Islamic State...

Spring is in the air in North Africa and things are starting to move again. The Algerian political rumor mill is starting to grind, a perverse stability is taking root in Libya, and speculation about Ould Abdelaziz’s intentions are budding in Nouakchott. Security throughout the Maghreb is still curiously – but not acutely – problematic. And the oil sector from Libya to Mauritania is on the upswing.