Wolfram Lacher on “Organized Crime and Conflict in the Sahel-Sahara Region.” He argues:
Western governments have focused heavily on AQIM’s presence, providing technical assistance in an attempt to strengthen the capacity of the security sectors and justice systems to combat the group. But Western governments have underestimated, if not ignored, the destabilizing impact of organized crime in the region. AQIM itself is in part a criminal network, kidnapping Western nationals with the double aim of extorting ransoms and freeing the group’s imprisoned members. And up until Mali’s military coup of March 2012, state complicity with organized crime was the main factor enabling AQIM’s growth and a driver of conflict in the north of the country. Actors involved in organized crime currently wield decisive political and military influence in northern Mali.
Jalal Abdel-latif: “Ethiopia and the Horn: Continuity Predicted in Rough Neighborhood”
Via Amb. David Shinn, a look at “Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean” (.pdf).
The World Bank: “Kenya’s Education Dividend”
Think Africa Press: “Uganda: Hidden Hunger in the Capital”
Amb. John Campbell on British concerns about transnational funding for Nigeria’s Boko Haram.
A Q&A from Human Rights Watch on the case of former Chadian leader Hissène Habré.
Baobab on aviation and art in Nigeria.
What are you reading today?
Sahel Blog 
Take everything John Campbell writes with a pinch of salt. He was sent to Nigeria as US ambassador, but he saw himself as Ambassador to Northern Nigeria (or to the elite of Northern Nigeria). Very few Southern Nigerians or non-Muslims take him seriously .
Having said that, he misses the point. The issue for the British isn’t the amount of money raised by these “charities” but to establish whether British Muslims are motivated enough to support Boko Haram. This has wide-ranging implications, Britain, unlike America has a SERIOUS problem with home-grown terrorism – has anyone visited Leeds, Bradford, Manchester or Birmingham lately?
Earlier this year, the Brits sent in special forces to Sokoto. Unlike the US, they take terrorism in Nigeria seriously and don’t want to be seen as pandering to political interests or toying with internal politics.
$1.1 billion Chinese loan to Nigeria. http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98849:how-11b-chinese-loan-will-affect-nigerians-by-okonjo-iweala&catid=1:national&Itemid=559