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Please join @AtlanticCouncil49 on 11/9 for a discussion on the impact of the fall of Muammar #Gaddafibit.ly/vy5fOq #NATO #Libya
Ripples Across The Sands: The Impact of the Fall of Gaddafi on Security in the Maghreb and Sahel
November 09, 2011
Please join the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center on November 9 for a panel discussion on the impact of the fall of Muammar Gaddafi on security in the Maghreb and Sahel. The panel will begin with a briefing on the current situation and will then proceed to a discussion of these questions from a variety of angles, including that the new Libyan government and the US military's efforts at building regional counterterrorism capabilities and encouraging cooperation between local partners. It will conclude with a sobering analysis of the potential threat for even greater insecurity in the event that the current challenges are not addressed.
While the death of Muammar Gaddafi and the virtual collapse of his regime forces have freed Libyans from more than four decades of tyranny, it has also complicated the security situation for their neighbors in the Maghreb and Sahel. Fighters loyal to the deposed dictator have taken refuge abroad and, as cross-border attacks they have carried out from Algeria show, still pose a threat, not only to the new government in Tripoli, but to regional stability. Moreover, there is the question of the impact that the arrival of mercenaries and others who fought for Gaddafi as well as copious quantities of arms will have in a region already beset by various armed movements from Taureg tribesmen to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to the Nigerian group Boko Haram to the Polisario Front separatists as well as penetrated by narco-traffickers and other criminals.
