Mali. Visit to Bamako by Mahamat DÉBY, Head of the Transitional Council of Chad

The Head of the Transitional Council of Chad, Mahamat DÉBY, current President of the G5 for the Sahel, will visit Bamako at the end of November to meet Malian President Assimi GOITA. 

At the center of the talks between the two there are also relationships between Mali and Russia, in particular the possibility, repeatedly mentioned by the international media, that Bamako will start a collaboration with the private security company WAGNER. 

In this sense, one of the objectives of DÉBY's visit would be to undermine this collaboration,  not formalized by the parties yet, and avert a crisis with the other G5 countries, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and precisely Chad.

The role of WAGNER in the Sahel and the problems connected to it have also been the subject of recent talks held in Paris between Mahamat DÉBY himself, the President of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian KABORÉ, the President of Niger, Mohamed BAZOUM, and the French President Emmanuel MACRON.

Rose Partners: the dark side of Private Security Company in Libya?

Since last year, Rose Partners, a Private Security Company based in UK, has begun to send personnel (british guards and former british officers) to occupy key positions in the Libyan security sector. 

Control rooms and police units are the main targets of the Rose Partners and, a part from the bad training provided, Libyans are worried about the new foreign presence and its effect on the Libyan government. 

Private Security Companies are well known to conduct clandestine operations and shady activities in foreign soils.
Rose Partners, a Private Security Company formed by british former police and army officers, has highly increased its presence in Libya and has taken control of some of the most sensitive security positions.

The recent inauguration of the Suprem Security Chamber, that will supervise and coordinate police operations in Libya, comes after some training provided last year to the coast guards and to the local police. As pointed out by a police officer trained in “riot control techniques”: “the training is of low quality, we were better trained by the armed forces”. Besides that, some Libyan governmental officers expressed concern for the lack of effectiveness of a company made of former police officers who “were not able of increasing the level of security in the United Kingdom” and the risk that “Rose Limited is a foreign actor that could bring a hidden agenda and run clandestine operations”.

The Interior Ministry has held a training course in the field of crime scene management, for the Tripoli Security Directorate agents, in cooperation with experts from the English Security Risk Management Company "Rose Partners"

Private Security Companies are used to provide security and risk management in deteriorated scenarios and failed states but often doubts, supported by hard evidence, about their integrity and accountability surfaced. In too many events private security companies were accused of abusing civilians, being unrespectful of local costume and exerting pressures on local government to pursue their specific aims. 

Moreover, it is clear that in countries where Private Security Companies are deployed, security becomes a private good and, as result, the government is weakened and its institutions undermined. In fact, a direct effect of Private Security Companies presence is the creation of parallel structures of government that erode the economic and political independence of the state. 

A very relevant issue about the presence of Rose Partners is the “lack of democratic accountability that such companies inevitably bring”, as an intelligence expert say, and as a police officer adds “we do not know if, as in other part of the world, Rose Partners could be used to run clandestine operations (operations with little oversight and no accountability to the Libyan society)”. 

The last is considered a central sensitive issue by Libyans, worried because other Private Military Company, such the russian Cremlin aligned Wagner, has been running clandestine operations on their soil, further jeopardizing the peace in the area.

Another issue is debated among Libyans in social media; Muhammad, a student from Tripoli, doubts that the British personnel (former police officers) working for the Rose Partners “will be able to bring security in Libya, since they failed to secure their own country”. 

The dramatic security situation in UK is confirmed by statistics that highlight how “the European country saw an increase of around 120 thousand offences when compared with the previous reporting year, the highest in the UK since 2003/04. The UK region with the highest number of crimes in 2019/20 was London, at over 850 thousand.”

It seems clear that Libya does not need another non-state actor that easily avoid government oversight.

Exclusive: Has Special Deterrence Force collected new evidences on allegations against Tariq Shanbour?

One year ago a report by CNN accused libyan costal security and Tripoli-based interior ministry’s Coastal Security Directorate, Colonel Tariq Shanbour to help smugglers in Libya auctioning migrants off as slaves. The CNN reported migrants being sold for as little as LD 600 and showed some of them being auctioned as farm labourers. Colonel Tariq Shanbour claimed that the CNN report was part of an international campaign to denigrate Libya, itself a victim of illegal immigration.

As a consequence of such CNN report Deputy Presidency Council (PC) leader Ahmed Maetig announced an inquiry into allegations that illegal migrants have been sold at auctions as slaves. In a statement, he says the investigation will lead to the arrest of those involved and of them being brought to justice, referring to Colonel Tariq Shanbour.

One year after a source working for the Coastal Security Directorate revealed that Special Deterrence Force (SDF) collected new evidences about another dirty story referred to Tariq Shanbour. According the source SDF obtained documents that will proof the involvement of Shanbour in stealing more than three millions of libyan dinars from Coastal Security Fund in Tripoli.

Special Deterrence Force (SDF) is going deeper into such investigation at the moment when rumors are confirming news leaked by the source.

Libyan citizens question the real reasons behind the presence of the French ‘Premiere Urgence Internationale’ NGO in Kufra

Reliable sources in Kufra, in southern Libya, have highlighted the activities of the French ‘Premiere Urgence Internationale’ NGO which operates in the medical sector in the city and other villages in the area, and noted that a "team of specialists" arriving "straight from France in August" was added "for two weeks" to the staff providing medical assistance. The source added that the team was tasked with gathering information on the whole area, "identifying the needs of Libyans living there" and "verifying whether the deployment of French military troops would be welcomed in the area".

According to another Libyan source working in the city of Kufra, the nature of the work being done by the team which arrived from Paris has nothing to do with the health care provided by the ‘Premiere Urgence Internationale’ staff, but it is typical of the French Intelligence Service modus operandi, operating under the cover of the NGO.

"French delegation request to support the imminent arrival of a French military contingent in that area"

A Libyan diplomatic source, who asked to remain anonymous, said that "a French delegation arrived in early August in Benghazi and was accompanied by some Libyan doctors to Kufra in order to offer aid to the Libyan Tebu tribes and those across the border and to create a unified front in support of France. The reasons and nature of this aid are unknown. Two weeks later, the delegation returned to Benghazi and from there returned to Paris".

According to the same source, the delegation moved across the entire area under the pretense of providing health assistance, while the objective was to establish relations with local tribal leaders and gain the approval of the people to pave the way for a French military intervention in southern Libya. This approach could strongly upset the citizens who grew suspicious following the many questions and the persisting request to support the imminent arrival of a French military contingent in that area.

Balkan media accuse Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) to support radical islamic network

According to the Serbian Televizija Republike Srpske - a Bosnian entity level public mainstream TV - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s wife, is the patron of the weightiest humanitarian organization: Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).

IHH is a radical Islamic organization, established in 1992 by a member of the Turkish Refah Party and formally registered in Istanbul in 1995. Besides its legitimate humanitarian activities, IHH supports radical Islamic networks. In recent years, it has prominently supported Hamas (through the Union of Good).

In addition, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) has reliable information that in the past IHH provided logistical support and funding to global jihad networks.

The Balkans, and specifically the western portion of them with Bosnia and Herzegovina, has become a major recruitment base for ISIS due to their high rates of unemployment and the growing size of marginalized sectors of society.

The Balkans is strategically important for ISIL as they serve as a major transit zone for foreign recruits to ISIL from various parts of the world. The Balkans are also important for ISIL for movements in the opposite direction, it is a transit point for operatives into Western Europe and a staging point for terrorist operations.

Belgian Intelligence stopped cooperation with Turkish MIT

Belgian Intelligence and Security Agency (VSSE) has stopped cooperation on terrorism with Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) as consequence of the action taken on mosque in Limburg.

According to Daily Sabah - a Turkish pro-government daily - "the procedure to withdraw the recognition of the Fatih Mosque in Beringen" has convinced supporters of President Erdogan that Belgian Intelligence are investigating their leader.

Euroactiv - a European media platform specialising in the online publication of articles focusing on European policymaking - reported that "the Flemish interior minister has taken action against a mosque supported by Turkey, whose imam is suspected of informing Ankara about supporters of Fethullah Gülen, the self-exiled cleric accused of being the mastermind behind last year’s failed coup".