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The UK's Response to Extremism and Instability in North and West Africa

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The UK's Response to Extremism and Instability in North and West Africa House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee The UK’s response to extremism and instability in North and West Africa Seventh Report of Session 2013–14 Volume II HC 86-II The Foreign Affairs Committee The Foreign Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its associated agencies. Current membership Rt Hon Sir Richard Ottaway (Conservative, Croydon South) (Chair) Mr John Baron (Conservative, Basildon and Billericay) Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrat, North East Fife) Rt Hon Ann Clwyd (Labour, Cynon Valley) Mike Gapes (Labour/Co-op, Ilford South) Mark Hendrick (Labour/Co-op, Preston) Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) Andrew Rosindell (Conservative, Romford) Mr Frank Roy (Labour, Motherwell and Wishaw) Rt Hon Sir John Stanley (Conservative, Tonbridge and Malling) Rory Stewart (Conservative, Penrith and The Border) The following Members were also members of the Committee during the parliament: Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth (Labour, Coventry North East) Emma Reynolds (Labour, Wolverhampton North East) Mr Dave Watts (Labour, St Helens North) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including news items) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/facom. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the front of this volume. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Kenneth Fox (Clerk), Peter McGrath (Second Clerk), Zoe Oliver-Watts (Senior Committee Specialist), Dr Brigid Fowler (Committee Specialist), Louise Glen (Senior Committee Assistant), Su Panchanathan (Committee Assistant), and Alex Paterson (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Foreign Affairs Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6105; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. The UK’s response to extremism and instability in North and West Africa 5 Witnesses Tuesday 21 May 2013 Page Imad Mesdoua, Political Analyst, Pasco Risk Management, and Professor Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, Bradford University; Jon Marks, Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House Ev 1 Tuesday 25 June 2013 Professor Michael Clarke, Director General, Royal United Services Institute; Sir Richard Gozney, former UK High Commissioner to Nigeria and former UK Permanent Representative to the Economic Community of West African States; Virginia Comolli, Research Associate for Transnational Threats, the International Institute for Strategic Studies Ev 15 Tuesday 8 October 2013 Lynne Featherstone, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for International Development, Susanna Moorehead, Director, Western and Southern Africa, Department for International Development, and Mark Bowman, Director-General, Humanitarian, Security, Conflict and International Finance, Department for International Development Ev 33 Tuesday 11 November 2013 Rt Hon Hugh Robertson MP, Minister of State, Samantha Job, Head of North Africa Department, Tim Morris, Head, Sahel Taskforce and Whitehall Sahel Co-ordinator,and Simon Shercliff, Head of Counter-Terrorism Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ev 40 Tuesday 3 December 2013 Mark Simmonds MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Tim Morris, Head, Sahel Task Force and Whitehall Sahel Co-ordinator, and Catherine Inglehearn, Deputy Head of Africa Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ev 51 List of printed written evidence 1 Professor Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, Bradford University Ev 59 2 Jon Marks, Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House Ev 62 3 Royal United Services Institute Ev 66 4 Sir Richard Gozney, former UK High Commissioner to Nigeria and former UK Permanent Representative to the Economic Community of West African States Ev 70 5 Department for International Development Ev 72 6 The UK’s response to extremism and instability in North and West Africa 6 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ev 73; Ev 80; Ev 82; Ev 83; Ev 88 cobber Pack: U PL: COE1 [SO] Processed: [17-03-2014 12:45] Job: 036016 Unit: PG01 Source: /MILES/PKU/INPUT/036016/036016_o001_MP FAC 21 05 13 corrected.xml Foreign Affairs Committee: Evidence Ev 1 Oral evidence Taken before the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday 21 May 2013 Members present: Richard Ottaway (Chair) Mr John Baron Mark Hendrick Sir Menzies Campbell Mr Frank Roy Mike Gapes Sir John Stanley ____________________ Examination of Witnesses Witnesses: Imad Mesdoua, Political Analyst, Pasco Risk Management, and Professor Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, Bradford University, gave evidence. Q1 Chair: I welcome members of the public to this the towns, but in some of the mountainous areas; and, first evidence session in the Committee’s inquiry into perhaps most worrying of all, the early evidence that the UK response to extremism and political instability paramilitary elements from other countries have been in North and West Africa. moving into Mali. There was the incident two or three I am delighted to welcome our first two witnesses: days ago, in which four Egyptians were killed—one Professor Paul Rogers, who is professor of peace was quite well known—who had clearly been in Mali studies at Bradford university; and Mr Imad Mesdoua, for some time. That suggests that our fear that it might political analyst with Pasco Risk Management. Thank become a magnet for a wider group, quite apart from you both very much indeed for coming along. Is there the Tuareg who came across from Libya, may be anything you want to say by way of opening coming to pass. statement? Chair: We will probe that shortly. Professor Rogers: Just thank you for inviting us here Imad Mesdoua: I tend to agree. We have this afternoon. underestimated the complexity of the situation in Mali. One error that was and is currently being made Q2 Chair: My pleasure. May I start the ball rolling is that we tend to view the crisis in Mali in the sole by asking if Mali is a textbook example of good context of northern Mali, rather than looking at the international intervention, or is the jury still out? broader regional implications. We also tend to look at Professor Rogers: It is very much the case that the it in a very specific and limited timeline. We tend to jury is still out. I would be much happier if I were look at events in Mali starting from the coup or crisis able to look back from five years in the future. We are in 2012, but many of the problems facing the in the very early stages of what may develop in Mali international community in Mali and elsewhere in the and in its relationship to surrounding areas. At the Sahel go far back. The border issue, smuggling and moment, it looks like some progress is being made, drug trafficking, as well as drought and famine, go but one has to be very cautious. In particular, we are back decades. The Tuareg issue, as the professor coming into the hottest part of the year, when rightly noted, goes back at least 30 or 40 years. We traditionally there is much less movement; for that have, to a certain extent, underestimated the reason alone, there may be something of a hiatus. complexity of the problems in Mali at the moment. Imad Mesdoua: I tend to agree with what the professor said. Whether Mali will be seen as a success Q4 Chair: If the French had not intervened and the will depend to a large extent on how the elections go Islamic forces who were pushing south had taken in the month of July, and whether these elections are Bamako, what do you think the impact would have able to bring about a free and fair choice for the been on Britain’s interests, or the interests of Europe people of Mali and legitimate institutions, but also and the wider world? redefine the role of the military within Mali. Whether Imad Mesdoua: I think there would have been very it was a success will depend on the long-term serious consequences for western interests, not only objectives that are set out for the development of Mali in Mali but elsewhere. Mali is a key country, geo- and its political institutions, rather than just focusing strategically. Where it is situated is extremely on the security agenda that has been looked at thus far. important to western interests, and it is a key country for the stability of the broader Sahel region. You have Q3 Chair: Do you think we have underestimated the Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, Morocco and other complexity of it? countries that depend on the stability of that country Professor Rogers: I certainly think so, yes. It is a for them to be stable. That may explain Algeria’s combination of a number of different factors: the reluctance to get involved in the conflict. It would complexity of the ethnic make-up in northern Mali; have presented a major threat, especially in terms of the role particularly of the Tuareg; the relative roles security. I was at a talk a few months ago here in of Islamist tendencies; the extent to which the Islamist Parliament, where the key question was: is Mali the elements last year became quite embedded, not just in next Afghanistan? I think if the French had not cobber Pack: U PL: COE1 [E] Processed: [17-03-2014 12:45] Job: 036016 Unit: PG01 Source: /MILES/PKU/INPUT/036016/036016_o001_MP FAC 21 05 13 corrected.xml Ev 2 Foreign Affairs Committee: Evidence 21 May 2013 Imad Mesdoua andn Professor Paul Rogers intervened, we could probably have answered that Professor Rogers: On the question of the $4.2 billion, question with a “probably” or a “yes.” It would have that is indeed very welcome, but there is a proviso.
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