Word: algerianness
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...have been attracted to West Africa by its weak governments and whose presence has weakened them further. First, the region has become a staging ground for operations by militant Islamists calling themselves al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group largely made up of Algerian fighters who fled south in the late 1990s after losing a decade-long war against the government. AQIM specializes in the kidnapping - and occasional execution - of foreigners, something that prompted the Paris-Dakar rally to move to South America last year. In December 2008, AQIM kidnapped the U.N. special envoy...
...course, kidnapping foreigners has long been a staple of militant activities in war zones like Iraq or Afghanistan and, at times, even in supposedly more secure settings like Pakistan and Yemen. But apart from a one-off abduction of 32 Europeans trekking in the Algerian desert in 2003, North African militants never showed much of an interest in kidnapping until they linked up with al-Qaeda in 2007. Since then, it's become a veritable habit. (See pictures of heartbreak in the Middle East...
...despite the gruesome executions that sometimes happen when ransoms aren't paid, African officials have urged Western governments not to encourage hostage taking by rewarding it. Last September, Algerian President Abellaziz Bouteflika asked the United Nations to adopt an international ban on paying ransoms, which he called "the biggest source of terror financing today." Still, with the clock ticking for the hostages now in AQIM's hands, the decision for Western leaders grows more difficult...
...heated rivalry between the Egyptian and Algerian national soccer teams exploded into violence, threatening diplomatic ties between the North African nations. Attacks on a bus carrying the Algerian squad in Cairo triggered a series of skirmishes there and in Algiers that left fans of both teams injured. The conflict escalated after Algeria won a Nov. 18 match between the two countries in Khartoum, Sudan, earning a spot in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Assaults against Egyptian fans leaving the stadium sparked riots outside the Algerian embassy in Cairo and spurred Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to recall...
...Still, tensions can bubble up in surprising ways. In July, an al-Qaeda wing in North Africa vowed to target Chinese immigrants living there as revenge for the recent ethnic strife in China's largely Muslim Xinjiang region. The next month, riots against Chinese traders broke out in the Algerian capital Algiers, where residents accused the foreigners of failing to respect Islam. Last year, nine Chinese oil workers living near the Darfur area of Sudan were kidnapped by an unknown group. Five were later killed. An international trade embargo because of the unfolding genocide in Darfur may have kept most...