The Tuareg, who continue to live in the Sahara, are suffering greatly from increasing terrorist acts and the consequences of the Anti-Terror campaign of the state security forces, stated the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in Göttingen on Monday. "Ever since the North African terrorist organization ‘Al-Quida in Maghreb’ (AQMI) began kidnapping Europeans about once a month, foreign travelers have been avoiding the Sahara, which means fewer and fewer Tuareg are able to survive on tourism and handcrafts,” stated Ulrich Delius, consultant for Africa at the STP. "The collapse of tourism is life-threatening for the Tuareg nomads living in Nigeria and Mali. They are still suffering from a serious drought, and many of them have lost their herds.” For years many of the Tuareg have earned their living by offering vacationers their service as tourguides or by selling them handcrafts.

"The Tuareg also fear the aftermath of the Anti-Terror campaign. The state security forces assault the indigenous people time and again in their persecution of presumed terrorist groups,” elucidated Delius. The camps of this nomadic people are searched violently and Tuareg are arrested in order to pacify the world public.

Yesterday, AQMI announced the murder of French hostage Michel Germaneau. The 78-year-old former engineer of the Algerian oil industry was kidnapped April 19th, 2010 in Nigeria. After an attempted forced release of the hostage by French and Mauretanian soldiers failed, killing six terrorists in the process, AQMI apparently executed the hostage. More than 50 foreigners have been kidnapped by AQMI and predecessor organizations in the Sahara since 2000. Except for the Briton Edwin Dyer, who was murdered by his hostage-taker in 2009, most of the hostages were released once a ransom was paid.

"The nominal effectiveness of the Antiterror fight in the Sahara raises the question whether the states in the region want to disable the AQMI at all,” said Delus, "considering that they apparently receive more and more military aid from the USA and Europe with every terrorist act.” Tens of thousands of soldiers from Algeria, Nigeria, Mali, and Mauretania (with military support from the USA, Great Britian and France) are incapable of stopping the terrorism of the 400 (at most) AQMI fighters, many of whom are themselves not even familiar with the area. Algeria announced in May of 2010 that it was prepared to provide approximately 75,000 soldiers until 2012 for the fight against terror in the Sahara. "This does not help the Tuareg. Their survival remains acutely threatened by the growing violence and militarization of the Sahara,” warned Delius.

Translation: Sophia Chambers