Interesting, Overlooked news from Africa

By Douglas Farah

Here is one of several reports from the end of last year that friends at Global Witness and other NGOs have passed on recently, pointing to some of the dangerous trends in the relatively stateless areas of Africa where the United States remains almost totally unegaged. Note that Angola has a long, bloody civil war, largely fueled, like those of Sierra Leone and Liberia, over diamonds. What is interesting is that it is on the record and fairly specific in the information.

From AFP, November 27, 2004 Saturday 9:49 AM GMT
LENGTH: 229 words
HEADLINE: Islamic extremist groups recruiting in Angola: intelligence chief
DATELINE: LUANDA Nov 27

BODY:

Two Islamic extremist groups are trying to recruit commandos in Angola to carry out suicide missions outside the southwest African country, the Jornal de Angola newspaper cited the head of intelligence as saying Saturday.

"We have signs... that indicate that at least two internationally known terrorist groups are present in Angola," General Frenando Garcia Miala was quoted as saying.

The two groups which are in Angola are not only trying to recruit members, they also "trying to gather funds for their overseas operations, and are hiding their members who are sought internationally."

"Recently, a religious sect tried to recruit new members to its ranks, preferring former soldiers who specialised in engineering," Miala said in an interview. "No candidate with the desired experience was signed up because the suicide mentality doesn't exist in our culture, especially not when it's for a foreign cause," he said.

"We have also learned that some Angolans have been awarded scholarships by a so-called religious organisation but they were somewhere in Egypt in a centre where they were learning Muslim fundamentalist doctrine," said the general. The four Angolans he was referring to "ran away to Cairo where they were taken in by our country's representatives. They had failed to adapt because they
saw that (Islamic fundamentalism) was contrary to our culture."

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