Africa's Sahel region turns into problem zone - Margelov

RABAT, September 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Africa's Sahel region has become a
problem area, especially in connection with an upsurge in the activity of
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the special presidential envoy for
Africa, FC member Mikhail Margelov told Itar-Tass over the telephone. He
is currently on an African tour.
The Sahel is a tropical savannah desert, which stretches for 3.9
thousand square kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa to the
Red Sea in the east. This region covers the territory of such countries as
Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and
Eritrea.
According to Margelov, the Sahel region "is faced with such problems
as arms trafficking, migration of large masses of people, very poor
control and lack of protected permanent borders."
Last Friday, the president's special representative visited one of the
oldest settlements in West Africa - Timbuktu (Mali). It was founded in the
11th century and is the largest cultural and spiritual center of the Sahel
and the Sahara. Many buildings in the city are included in the list of
UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Margelov met with representatives of the
local authorities, religious figures and tribal leaders to "understand the
severity of problems in the Sahel and see what exactly one might expect
from future developments."
Margelov described his trip to the region as "an expedition to measure
the temperature of what is happening in the Sahel and the Sahara, which
are now disturbed by recent events in Libya." As Margelov said, "Libya's
problems were topic number one at all of his latest past meetings and
conversations." Large amounts of arms have now started flowing into the
region from Libya.
Speaking about Timbuktu (Mali), which is considered the unofficial
capital of the Sahel and the Sahara, Margelov called it "a city where one
feels most accurately the pulse of life of the Sahara and Africa's
sub-Saharan region."