French Senate Report: “Algeria Is Exerting Pressure On The Touareg”

Algeria has been blamed, according to a report issued by the French Senate for exerting pressure on the Tuaregs in northern Mali allegedly through cross-border smuggling.

Indeed, in this report, “Sahel: Rethinking development assistance”, published on 29 June in Paris by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces of the French Senate, it is revealed that Algeria account about 250,000 Touaregs, while there are about 800,000 in Mali, 1.8 million in Niger and to tens of thousands in Libya and to a lesser extent in Burkina Faso and the staple commodities subsidized by Algeria are being allegedly smuggled to northern Mali, Niger and Mauritania.

In this sense, it is 4,640 tonnes per week, the equivalent of 180 trucks of food products are said to have been smuggled across the southern borders of the country and since 2011 with a downward trend since 2014 due to the current economic crisis and the volatile security situation now prevailing in the region.

This report, also claims without any tangible evidence that, arms trafficking, even heavy weaponry are smuggled from Libya, adding that Asian-made cigarettes transit through Algeria to reach Europe.