Operation Oil Theft: Month 13, Week 2, Day 1.

Due to repeated Internet outages I have absolutely no idea what's been happening in Libya recently. Not even about how Britain has been putting pressure on the National Transitional Council (NTC) over two British journalists who were arrested by a militia for spying while working for Iranian broadcaster PressTV. Considering that Britain and PressTV despise each other that must have been a very complicated negotiation.

So instead I'm going to talk about recent events in Mali that are undoubtedly a consequence of the foreign intervention in Libya. Throughout his rule Muammer Qaddafi supported liberation movements across Africa paying special attention to the Tuareg cause. The Tuaregs are a nomadic tribe that have inhabited parts of Libya, Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso since long before those countries were countries. Since the 1960's the Tuaregs have been fighting for an autonomous homeland mainly in northern Mali and Niger. Qaddafi supported them with money and political assistance as well as granting many Tuareg refugees Libyan citizenship allowing the to live semi-autonomously in southern Libya. When the Libyan uprising began many Tuaregs returned the favour by fighting for Qaddafi. Following the fall of Tripoli the Tuaregs - even the Libyan born ones - became the target of the militia's ethnic purges forcing many of them to flee to Mali with many of them taking Libyan money and weapons with them.

Since January 2012 this influx of battle hardened combat veterans and weapons has fuelled a Tuareg insurgency that has killed hundreds and internally displaced over 200,000 people. The Malian army has not been coping with this insurgency with many of the rank and file blaming the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure for not giving them the resources they need to fight the Tuaregs. So on the night of last Wednesday, March 21st 2012 (21/3/12) a group of soldiers led by Amadou Konare and calling themselves the National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy stormed the Presidential Palace and TV station in the capital Bamako before suspending the constitution, sealing the nations borders and declaring a Coup. Since then chaos has reigned with different army units seemingly doing what they like and widespread rioting and looting amid the power vacuum. The African Union (AU), the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the United States (US) have all condemned the Coup calling on all troops to return to their barracks and immediately restore both constitutional rule and the democratic government of President Toure. The US has also suspended all military aid to Mali and is reviewing it's supply of humanitarian aid.

In another story that relates to Libya Britain is currently in the grips of what is being called the "Dinner for Donors" scandal. Broken by the Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday (25/3/12) it revealed that people who made large donations to the governing Conservative Party were rewarded with invitations to discuss government policy with the Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha at their private residence. One of these donors was revealed to be Ian Taylor the boss and major shareholder of a oil brokerage firm called Vitol who donated around USD800,000. Shortly after Mr Taylor's cosy dinner with the Prime Minister Vitol was granted a special licence to break the UN imposed oil embargo and sell Libyan oil on behalf of the rebels during the conflict. That earned Vitol around USD1billion in profit and helped them win the distribution contract for Libyan oil in 2012 which is worth a lot more to the company.