Part One: Iranian arms in West Africa - set-up or mess-up?
By *RNW Africa Desk*
Created *23 December 2010 14:35*
 [image: A security official arranges arms intercepted by authorities at
Apapa Port]

*Late October, news came in that Nigerian police in Lagos had seized a ship
carrying 13 containers with heavy arms and ammunition. Estimated price tag:
some 20 million US dollars. Origin: Iran. Destination: the Gambian
presidency. Now, two months later, relations between Senegal and Iran have
reached breaking point.*

*Part one, by Bram Posthumus and Sheriff Bojang*

Three questions. First, why would Iran send arms to West Africa? Second,
does the Gambia, a small country along the river of the same name, need such
a copious quantity of arms? Thus: third, who were they for?

*Gambia's ambiguous role
*Let us begin with that last question. Since 1982, there has been a
low-intensity conflict going on in the southern Senegalese region of
Casamance, which shares a border with the Gambia and another with Guinea
Bissau. Northern Guinea Bissau was a rear-base for the Casamance rebels for
years but recent incursions into Senegal from there have been rare. While
still a nuisance, the rebel force itself is weak and splintered.

So what of the Gambia? Its role in the Casamance has been ambiguous. It has
tried to facilitate peace talks but it has also been a shelter to the rebels
and arms have reached Casamance through the Gambia before. So the news of
this particular shipment caused consternation in Dakar, especially since the
stated destination was the home village and permanent residence of Gambian
president Yahya Jammeh, Kanilai – a few kilometres from the Casamance
border.
*
Mutual suspicion*
Gambian diplomats have denied that their country was the destination for the
arms and the country has now also severed ties with Iran. But Senegal
remains unimpressed and suspicious. That feeling, by the way, is mutual.

[related-articles]But even though the arms saga has further soured the mood
between Dakar and Banjul, things still do not add up. As we said, the rebel
movement in Casamance is hardly worthy of the name and such a quantity of
arms and ammunition would be wasted on them. So: who were these arms for?

*Part two of this story will be pubished on Friday 24 December*




 ------------------------------
*Source URL:*
http://www.rnw.nl/article/part-one-iranian-arms-west-africa-set-or-mess
 *Links:*
 *Images:*
[i1] A security official arranges arms intercepted by authorities at Apapa
Port -- http://www.rnw.nl/data/files/images/lead/article/2010/12/armsnig.jpg
[i2] http://www.rnw.nl/


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