Saudis Funding Terror in Africa

Just as I've been warning for some time now, the failed states of Africa will be used as breeding grounds for international terror groups, including al Qaeda:

Refugee camps in the Sudanese region of Darfur are being infiltrated by Al Qaeda, Chad said yesterday.

Backed by wealthy Saudi Arabians and the Sudanese government, mercenaries are gaining power in Darfur, Chad said. A neighbor of Sudan, Chad is strongly advocating a U.N. force for Darfur, though Sudan rejected a U.N. Security Council proposal yesterday to boost the small African Union force now in the region.

The U.N. proposal would have added more troops and equipment for a new force operating under the command of the United Nations. Chad hosts millions of Sudanese refugees who have crossed the border from Darfur to escape the murder, rape, and pillaging committed by Sudanese government-backed Arab militias known as the janjaweed, in a campaign described by the Bush administration as genocide.

When American officials offered recently to involve NATO in stopping the violence in Darfur, Sudanese officials said the presence of Westerners in their mostly Muslim country would only inspire the militants, including Al Qaeda, who would unite to fight the foreigners.

But the Chadian ambassador to the United Nations, Mahamat Ali Adoum, wrote to the president of the Security Council yesterday that unless foreign troops are sent to control the refugee camps, Al Qaeda will join forces with anti-government rebels there.

That the AU, UN, and even the US are reluctant to deal with the problems associated with failed states, peacekeeping, or peacemaking, the failed states in Africa will continue to be a breeding ground for al Qaeda and other terror groups that will have the space and opportunity to plot attacks against neighboring countries and the West.

The situation in the camps is going to be exploited by the terrorists and few are willing to take action. Terrorists exploit failed states to set up shop, they rely on chaos and a lack of governance to provide cover, and to recruit foot soldiers in their campaign against the West. They'll find common cause among the dispossessed.

Technorati: darfur, dafur, UN, sudan, chad, somalia, ethiopia, eritrea, african union, janjaweed, and Kofi Annan