2 Mauritanian Agencies Get Scoops in Algeria Siege

But two little-known news agencies from Nouakchott, the seaside capital of Mauritania, nearly 2,000 miles west across the desert, nonetheless managed to publish regular updates on the attack, citing the attackers themselves.

Those news outlets, the Agence Nouakchott d’Information, or ANI, and Sahara Media, were the first to identify the Islamist militants responsible for the raid and the first to describe their motives and demands. The agencies, which publish in both Arabic and French, suddenly found themselves at the center of the crisis, which attracted international attention and led to the deaths of at least 38 hostages and 29 attackers.

“In every war there are two sides,” said Mohamedi Abdallah, the owner and director of Sahara Media, whose journalists spoke with the militants perhaps a dozen times during the standoff. “One always needs to hear from both camps.”

Citing fighters at the In Amenas compound and their spokesmen, the reports by ANI and Sahara Media often contradicted the thin official narrative from the Algerian government, although there was significant suspicion about whether the Web sites were being used for dispensing terrorist propaganda. “We are not spokespeople for the so-called terrorists,” Mr. Abdallah said. “We don’t share these people’s ideas at all.”

At one point during the standoff at In Amenas, he said, the fighters requested that Sahara Media record a declaration by one of the militants in English, but the agency refused. “It was for propaganda,” Mr. Abdallah said.

“There is no link between us and these groups,” said Sidi El Mokhtar, who heads the Arabic-language service at ANI. “They send us information and we publish it. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Analysts said that Sahara Media and ANI had published statements and multimedia from the groups for several years, occupying central roles in the communications strategies of the militant groups in northern Mali and throughout the Sahara. The agencies regularly publish videos depicting Western hostages, along with statements and occasional interviews with militant leaders.

The sites are perhaps a bit ragtag in appearance, but they are reputed as reliable, said Alain Antil, a researcher and director of the program on sub-Saharan Africa at the French Institute of International Relations. “You can find far worse.”

Many of the fighters in northern Mali speak Hassanya, the same Arabic dialect as Mauritanians, meaning they do not require interpreters, and tribal and familial ties have perhaps engendered a sense of trust with Mauritanian journalists, Mr. Antil said.

As a result, Sahara Media is able to employ a correspondent in Timbuktu, in northern Mali, an area considered far too dangerous for most reporters. Shortly after the beginning of the attack at In Amenas, that correspondent was contacted by a militant spokesman who announced the operation and passed along the number for a satellite phone carried by the fighters, according to Mr. Abdallah, the owner and director.

The fighters’ reliance on the agencies also corresponds with the rising influence of Mauritanians in armed groups across the region, analysts say, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Religious education is known for its rigor in Mauritania, as is instruction in classical Arabic, and Mauritanians are said to often serve as religious authorities within the militant groups.

Increasingly, however, they have taken on leadership roles, analysts say; a number of groups in the region, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, and Al Mulathameen, the group behind the In Amenas attack, use Mauritanians as spokesmen, for instance.

The fact that ANI and Sahara Media publish not only in Arabic but also in French makes them all the more appealing to militant groups seeking a voice, analysts say. “They have every interest in having their words broadcast in a language that can be broadcast in Europe,” Mr. Antil said.

Adam Nossiter contributed reporting from Algiers, and Steven Erlanger from Paris.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/world/africa/2-mauritanian-agencies-get-scoops-in-algeria-siege.html?partner=rss&emc=rss