By Jean-Pierre Filiu, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2009.
Threats posed by terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) are creating security challenges not only to host nations but the global community. AQIM continues to exploit people’s disdain for Western policies in the region as a recruiting tool. However, in-fighting among its leadership and failure to consolidate a North African wide-organization due to resistance from the Libyan Al-Qaeda entity have been serious obstacles. The author argues that AQIM’s potency has been further weakened by intense pressure from the Algerian security forces as well as enhanced rapid reaction capacity in the region resulting from United States support to the Pan Sahel Initiative countries (Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger) now expanded to the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership TSCTP (including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria).
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