Even as UN-mediated negotations are set to begin, Morocco has unleashed a new wave of repression against advocates of independence for Western Sahara. The new crackdown began May 7, when Saharawi students at the university of Agadir, Morocco, were brutally beaten and arrested. On May 17, police clashed with student protesters demanding independence for the occupied territory at Rabat University, with 15 arrested and some students injured. The clash came after protesters defied a police order to end a week-long sit-in at the entrance to the university. Brahim Elansari, a member of the Saharawi Association for Human Rights Victims (ASVDH), was arrested Sunday afternoon after police stopped his car in Laayoune, Western Sahara's main city, said the organization's president, Brahim Dahane. Fellow activist Hassana Douihi, who was riding with Elansari, was also arrested. Shortly afterward, police arrested Naama Asfari, president of the Paris-based Committee for the Respect of Human Freedoms and Rights in Western Sahara. (Infoshop News, May 22)

Mohamed Meziane, president of Algeria's energy parastatal Sonatrach, meeting with US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in Washington, said he wants to triple natural gas exports to the US from 4 billion to 12 billion cubic metres per year by 2015. Algeria is also seeking technical assistance from the US in developing its nuclear capabilities.

Tuareg rebel leader Moktar Roman of the Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la Justice (MNJ) spoke to the UN news agency IRIN May 17 about the reasons behind the resurgence of armed attacks in the north of Niger this year. "The movement was created because nothing has been done by the government," Roman said. "There is no work, no schools, not even drinking water in all Niger. It's terrible, it's a genocide, and the government is corrupt, taking money from people and leaving them to live in poverty." He insisted the group is fighting for all citizens of Niger, which the UN considers the poorest and least developed country in the world. "It is not just a Tuareg movement," he said.

Algerian troops killed 13 Islamist fighters east of Algiers May 14, local media reported. Special forces backed by helicopters killed 11 militants said to belong to the "al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb" in an offensive on rebel hideouts in Tebessa province. In a separate operation, the army killed two Islamist rebels in Boumerdes. The attack in Tebessa near the border with Tunisia was launched after security forces received word that 20 rebels were preparing to transport large quantities of arms to Boumerdes and the neighboring province of Tizi Ouzou, also the scene of recent clashes. (Reuters, May 15)

Algerian security forces claim to have intercepted three Libyan men, on their way to join "Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb," the terrorist network's wing in North Africa. [AlJazeera, May 12] Three Algerian soldiers were killed by a bomb blast in the country-side east of Algiers [May 14]. The Algerian army has stepped up its assault on the country's Islamist militants, and now faces sharper reprisals. [Reuters, May 14]

Tuareg guerillas in Mali, accompanied by Tuareg fighters from neighboring Niger, attacked a northeast police post May 11, the first attack since a peace deal with the government last year. The assault against the gendarmerie post at Tin-Za, north of the town of Kidal and just two miles from the Algerian border, was led by Ibrahim Bahanga, a well-known Tuareg guerilla leader, anonymous sources told Reuters. There were no immediate details of casualties, but Mali's army sent reinforcements from the Saharan trading town of Kidal, located in the heartland of the Tuareg insrgency of the 1990s.

While it is always bad news when journalists are detained or harassed, we are extremely skeptical that there is "slavery" in the Polisario Front's refugee camps—and about this report generally. From South Africa's News24, May 7:

SYDNEY — Two Australian journalists who were making a documentary on slavery in refugee camps in northwest Africa were briefly detained in Algeria by separatists, an official said on Monday.

Morocco and the Polisario Front are to embark on UN-sponsored talks over the disputed territories of Western Sahara, while the Security Council unanimously resolved [May 1] to renew the 220-strong UN peacekeeping operation in the region. [The resolution also calls on both sides to enter into talks "without preconditions in good faith."] [AlJazeera, May 1]