Algerian Hostage Crisis

What is happening:

Because this crisis is so recent, and the knowledge surrounding it is so foggy, what has happened is pretty simple.

On January 16th, a group of Islamic militants seized an internationally run natural gas field in Algeria, in response to French military intervention in Mali earlier this month. Sort of your typical, Middle Eastern terrorist group. “Death to the west” and all that jazz. During the attack, two people were killed and a large number were held hostage, and are still being held hostage. And since then, an unknown number of people have been killed, but those unknown numbers include at least one American. (Cue American media attention).

The attack was carried out at dawn on Wednesday by a group calling themselves the “Signed In Blood Battalion”, who were able to, very easily, throw off this highly secure, Westerner-run oil field. Despite having strong security and minds from all over the globe (Japan, France, United Kingdom, United States), the ambush was carried out with few issues and, even though many people got away, they still managed to hold a large group hostage. I’m not the only one who thinks this probably should have been prepared for, right?

Luckily on Friday, a portion of the hostages managed to escape. Upon their return, they recounted stories of attempting to go undetected, being forced to strap themselves with explosives, and seeing coworkers and fellow hostages shot on the spot. A load of fun, I’m sure. And they also explained how there are still several captives still being held hostage by the Islamic attackers at the field.

Conditions for the release of the remaining captives are being negotiated by the Algerian government, but with a unorganized military, little power, and no international help at present, it doesn’t seem like the conflict will come to a close any time soon. Which is great because, you know, the Middle East and Africa haven’t had enough conflicts to deal with lately.

Seriously, it’s like nothing. (helpfulfigures.com)

But that’s about all we know. The crisis is fresh and will probably continue through the weekend and onto next week. But, looking at the way a lot of these crises go, the larger conflict may just be getting started.

Why you should care:

As we mentioned before, American citizens are among the group of those being held hostage in the crisis and those who have been killed by these attackers. Which is a good enough reason to grab US attention. But this hostage crisis is also a slap from reality to the American public when it comes to paying attention to the conflicts (rapidly growing conflicts) in Northern Africa.

For example, the “recent” conflict in Mali, which caused this attack in Algeria, has been going on for months; it was even mentioned during the presidential debates (yeah, back in OCTOBER).

“Maybe if we just keep talking, everyone will forget we brought it up…” (quizlet.com)

On a much broader scale, Northern Africa has had major conflicts going on since mid-late 2010. Just do some minor research on conflicts like the ones in the Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Libya, etc. ALL of these places are in Northern Africa and ALL of these place have had conflicts during the past two and a half years. And how many of these conflicts has the US paid attention to or helped out in? Aside from a two day airstrike in Libya (during an almost year long uprising), try none.

Now, with this conflict escalating, this being the one of the largest hostage crises ever, and with Americans involved in the crisis, the US is finally forced to turn its attention to this region. Despite the current American strategy of abstaining from involvement in Northern Africa, this crisis is getting America front and center. And what’s really important is that it doesn’t just get them front  and center on the hostage crisis, but it puts them in Algeria, then Mali, then the rest of the area that is having any crisis, conflict or issue. This will be the first time the world will see an involved US in this part of the world since the endless string of uprisings began. And whether that goes according to plan for the Americans, or if more conflict will come from their involvement, the world will soon begin to see a very different Africa.

Where you can read more: 

Confusion Surrounding Crisis: http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/01/algerias-hostage-crisis

Some Hostages Released: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/some-hostages-are-reported-killed-in-algerian-operation/2013/01/18/240fd97a-6151-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html

NPR Opinion On How To Handle Crisis: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/18/169732594/when-to-act-the-dilemma-in-every-hostage-crisis

The Conflict in Syria

What is happening:

So, for the past year and a half, Syria has been in an all out civil war between its government and its people. Yeah, a year and a half. Since the conflict officially began in March of 2011, Syrian rebels have been attacking (and been attacked by) the Syrian government in an attempt to overthrow the dictatorship held by Bashar al-Assad, one of the bloodiest, and probably the bat-shit craziest dictators the world has ever seen. As far as bloody goes, Assad has already seen to the death of over 8,000 fighters and 32,000 civilians. As far as insanity goes, he was quoted saying, “Only a crazy person would kill his own people.” Do we catch the irony here?

Ha ha! Bombs are fun! (www.lettera43.it)

The United Nations tried to send in “peacekeepers” who were essentially babysitters with no weapons, no power, and no ability to stop any sort of violence from happening. Time, energy, and money well spent, amirite? So, obviously, those did nothing. Several countries from around the world sent small batches of troops into the country to try to maintain peace, but again, they couldn’t do enough to make a difference. And, finally, very few diplomatic attempts were made to try to stop the violence from Assad, but, you guessed it, not enough to make any sort of real change to the situation! Which brings us to where we are today. Rebels are fighting the government (and losing, aside from a few successful attacks) and the government is continuing to bomb its people. Yay modern humanity.

Why the fuck you should care:

This one is tricky. Typically, you should care because of what America is doing about a world problem and the money being spent and the diplomacy and troops being used. But this time, you should care for a different reason. This time, you should care because of what little the U.S. is doing.

Take pretty much any (oil-filled) country in the Middle East or Africa that has had an uprising like this. Egypt, Libya, etc. The bloodshed wasn’t even a tenth as bad as in Syria and the conflict lasted less than half the time, and yet, the good ol’ US of A got itself involved. In Egypt, the U.S. sent weapons, in Libya, the U.S. had a goddam airstrike within the first few weeks. But now, with the death count passing 30,000 the U.S. has had absolutely no involvement with Syria. The United Nations has, frankly, done a half-assed job of trying to keep violence down, but the United States has continued to stay directly out of the entire conflict.

Nope, no thanks. (haber.gazetevatan.com)

Now, this is not an argument of whether or not the United States should intervene. Everyone is free to their own beliefs and opinions and there are definitely strong arguments for and against either side. But the point is that THIS SHOULD SEEM STRANGE. America gets involved in pretty much anything it can get its hands on, when there will at least be some mild benefit.

But, since Syria isn’t going to necessarily bring anything to the table as far as giving the US a hand at home (read: WEAPONS, MONEY, OIL), the US is abstaining from getting involved in the messy, seemingly unsolvable situation.

Essentially, you should care because this is one major global conflict that the United States is saying, “It’s cool; you guys got this,” to. And, even though they have their reasons (as self-interested as they are), it’s a bizarre thing to see.

Where you can read more:

Timeline of the Civil War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Syrian_civil_war

Human Cost of the War: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/10/daily-chart-3

Economist Projections of What Will Happen Next: http://www.economist.com/news/21566341-it-will-be-worse-it-gets-better-syrias-agony