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Recent events at the International Court of Justice in the Hague and the United Nations General Assembly remind us there is another: Britain’s continued administration of the Indian Ocean Chagos Archipelago.

Holding sway over the empire upon which the sun never set, Britain began calling the shots on  developments in the Indian Oceans around Mauritius from 1814.

Before giving that country independence in 1968, Britain paid four million pounds for the Chagos Archipelago and called it the British Indian Ocean Territory

In the mid sixties it leased one of the islands, Diego Garcia to the United States.

The Pentagon build a strategically importnat military base there, secure in the knowledge that it has tenure until 2035.

At Washington’s behest, Britain moved the  1800-odd islanders  off their home. They have never been allowed to return.

This type of behaviour might have been generally accepted in a bygone era of colonial administration..

It does not wash today – certainly not from a  country that has long passed the twilight of its global power.

Britain has set aside 40 million pounds to assist the displaced Chagoans who are mostly in Britain, the Seychelles and Mauritius.

Still not good enough.

The matter was brought to the United Nations’ top court that found in February that Britain had acted illegally by hiving off the archipelago to continue its occupation. The ICJ ruled this should end as soon as possible.

In the General Assembly this week, an African-sponsored motion was passed by 116 votes to six giving Britain six month to get off Chagos.

Britain’s ambassador to the world organization Dame Karen Pierce said candidly that this would not happen.

Britain is determined to continue its control of Chagos at least until 2036.

Not surprisingly the United States was one of the half-dozen opponents of the resolution.

It reminded the international community that operations from Diego Garcia protect the region from terrorists and pirates. The base is also used for humanitarian purposes like reducing tsunami victims.

Diego Garcia is not used to house terror suspects  but it is used as a refueling stop in transitioning them from points of capture to places of incarceration.

It was also used for US bombing raids on Iraq and Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington 18 years ago.

Neither the ICJ ruling nor the UNGA resolution is binding.

General Assembly resolutions cannot be enforced.

However the strongly reflects international opinion.

Flying in the face of it brings into question Britain’s commitment to the multilateral system of  governance.

With its military power having waned, Britain, like most other countries, has to rely on moral clout.

Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth urged countries to support the General Assembly resolution, saying failure to do so would be endorsing colonialism.

He maintains the United States can lease its military base from his government, adding that Mauritius would find it deeply offensive if Washington did not regard it as a trusted security partner.

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It’s calling on the continental organization codevelop cooperative mechanism to control the jihadis.

ends intro

Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmajid Teboune was speaking for his President Abdelziz Bouteflika who’s been made the AU coordinator against violent extremism and terrorism.

He says more than 5 000 young Africans have joined jihadi groups in Iraq, Syria and the Sahel.

Their radical and violent ideas  pose a danger to their own countries when they come home – as Algeria learned to its cost with militants returning from fighting Russians in Afghanistan a quarter of a century ago.

Bouteflika says Africa must cooperate to curb the extremists by limiting their movement with stricter controls on transport and tougher  border controls

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The United States is being increasingly drawn into a clandestine war in Somalia.

It is a battle that will embroil the next occupant of the Whitehouse -whomever he or she might be.

The US was at pains to stay out of Somalia following the 1993 setback known as Black Hawk Down when 18 American troops died fighting warlord Mohammed Aidid.

US troops, to use an old cowboy cliche, got outta there. They avoided Somalia like the plague for some years.

However they remained concerned about the incubation of terrorists in the virtually ungoverned Somalia and secretly supported the  2006 Ethiopian intervention to drive Islamists out of Mogadishu.

In the event, that give  rise to  the terrorist movement Al Shabaab – which means the youth in Arabic – and forced the Obama administration to think again.

The decider was Al Shabaab’s attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi that left at least 67 people dead.

Obama  felt obliged to drop his reluctance to put boots on the ground.

The battle against Al Shabaab special forces,  air and drone strikes, private contractors and African allies.

US attacks have increased exponentially on the movement that has been driven out of Somalia cities but manages to make indiscriminate attacks on urban targets from its rural bases.

The terrorists have struck Somalia police and army installations, popular restaurants and hotels and African Union bases.

The US had considerable success against Al Shabaab which was growing bolder and more daring its attacks.

Inevitably, though, there has been collateral damage with US forces inadvertently killing Somali government fighters.

They have been forced to mount more and more so-called self-defense attacks on Al Shabaab forcing, analysts says,  to an inevitable escalation in US military involvement in Somalia.

Michael Stock, director of the Washington-based Bancroft Global Development says they are in the business of nurturing a kernel of Somali fighters, trained by marines, around which a competent, sustainable defence force can be built.

They’re determined not to repeat the costly mistakes of Afghanistan and Iraq where large armies are formed that could not get the job done.

The elite Somali troops are also getting training at the US military task force in Djibouti, the self-governing enclave in the Horn  where Washington has its only permanent base on the African continent.

Independent analysts fear that the poor training, lack of  funds and equipment and poor motivation of the Somali forces will draw the US project out for many years.

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The country’s security services say they’re aware of the jihadis targeting South Africans but they’re not giving figures for the numbers that have actually been signed up.

In April a 15-year-old girl who said she was going to join IS was taken off a plane in Cape Town.

Turkish authorities say they’ve repatriated a dozen South African trying to reach Islamic State via their territory.

South African Muslim leaders say they know of at least eight families among the 23 South Africans now in IS hands.

Most of them have taken up humanitarian or administrative tasks.

However, at least two South Africans have died in battle in Syria.

Na’eem Jennah of the Afro-Middle East Centre warns against linking South Africa’s vociferous and politically active Muslim community with IS.

Muslims make up less than two percent of the South African population. But they clearly punch above their weight in terms of political representation.

Ten Muslim organisations issued a sermon read in South African Mosques last Friday warning youth attracted to IS that they risk jeopardising hard won freedoms South Africans enjoy.

South Africans recruited by IS contravene the Foreign Military Assistance Act.

This proscribes South African fighting for foreign countries. However, it hasn’t stopped South African mercenaries currently operating in Somalia, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

No-one has been tried under the Act brought in the ANC government.

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The democratically elected government is struggling to deal with both the hangover of the deposed Ben Ali regime and the new wave of jihadism that’s crashed down on the Arab world since then.

More Tunisians have to gone to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq than from any other Arab country.

The authorities have stopped about 9 000 Tunisians from doing this. But at least 3 000 have slipped through the net.

The radicalised young men that have returned are preying on the disaffection with the unemployment and poverty dating back to ousted dictator Ben Ali.

This is creating fertile ground for unrest and violent protest.

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This follows a carnage that left at least 50 people dead in in the Borno state capital Maiduguri.

ends intro

The Boko Haram declaration was made by the group’s leader Abubaker Shekau.

Their six- year fight to establish an Islamic caliphate in north easter Nigeria has left thousands

dead and has spread to neighbouring states.

Boko Haram has been formally associated with Al Qaida.

The alignment with Islamic State comes as no surprise. Boko Haram’s harsh ideology and actions

mirror those of IS.

It provides a propaganda boost for the Boko Haram and an injection of energy for IS whose

operations in Iraq and Syria are very much stalled on the defensive.

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The attack on the Grand Mosque in the Nigerian city of Kano that killed 120 people was the single deadliest incident.

The BBC study with International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation – records a total of 664 attacks in 14 countries.

Four fifths of these were in Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Syria.

The investigation records nearly seven people died every hour in November as a result of violence attributed to al-Qaeda, its offshoots and groups that subscribe to a similar ideology.

Sixty per cent of jihadist deaths were caused by groups that have no formal association with al-Qaeda.

They are expected to be the ones who will eventually vie for leadership of the movement.

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