Arms, drug smuggling and kidnapping combine in the Algerian Sahara

摘要

"Corruption is systemic in all of the Maghreb, and that is not likely to change," said Dr Geoff Porter, a political risk and security consultant specialising in North Africa. "We'll have to see what happens in Tunisia. It was a cesspool of corruption under the previous government and while the new one seems to have a zero tolerance policy to corruption, it has not been in power long enough to gauge its effectiveness," said Dr Porter, founder of US-based North Africa Risk Consulting. Furthermore, the region is in a state of turmoil following the uprisings that overthrew the Tunisian and Libyan regimes in 2011, with an estimated 250 militias still armed in Libya and reports of some 20,000 surface-to-air missiles having gone missing during the conflict.