CIB Weekly Intelligence Brief | Vol. 02 | Iss. 06

FIVE OFFICERS KILLED IN
TEHRAN RIOT
Nathan Lake, Member, Middle East Desk
February 22, 2018
On February 19, a riot erupted outside a police
station in Tehran by members of a Sufi
splinter group, the Gonabadi Dervishes, demanding
the release of fellow arrested members.
Reuters reported that security forces were
deployed to restrain the crowd, but were attacked,
resulting in the death of three police officers
and two paramilitary officers. At least thirty
others were injured when a bus was driven into
the ranks of the police. In separate incidents, two
officers of the voluntary paramilitary security
forces, Basij, under the command of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed. One officer
was run over by a vehicle driven by a protester
while another was stabbed to death. Over
300 protesters were arrested in the clash. The
New York Times stated that the conflict was
deepened by rumors of an arrest warrant for the
group’s leader, Nour Ali Tabandeh. This is the
most casualties that Iranian security forces have
suffered in one evening since the height of antigovernment
demonstrations in 2009.
PROTESTS AGAINST DE-
PORTATIONS IN ISRAEL
Jake Lewis, Member, Middle East Desk
February 9, 2018
On February 7, a large number of protesters
gathered in front of the Rwandan Embassy in
Israel to protest an Israeli plan to deport African
migrants to an unnamed African destination,
believed by many to be Rwanda. Al
Jazeera states that the Israeli parliament passed
a bill last year in December that authorized the
government to force asylum seekers out of the
country. France 24 states that the African migrants
who cooperate with the deportation will receive a
$3,500 stipend, while those who do not, will face
indefinite imprisonment. Israel started issuing deportation
notices on February 4 to over 20,000 African
males giving them two months to leave the
country. The New York Times states that the protests
featured rhetoric calling on Rwandan President
Paul Kagame not to cooperate with the deportation
plan, as well as characterizing the plan
as racially motivated. A number of the migrants
who have sought asylum in Israel over the past
decade have expressed no desire to return to
Rwanda. Due to the social segregation inside Israel,
which is criticized by both migrants and citizens,
it is possible that similar protests will become
commonplace in the country.
AL-SHABAAB FUNDS OPERATIONS
WITH INTERNATIONAL AID FUNDS
Blake Gutberlet, Analyst, Africa Section | February 20, 2018
A United Nations investigation has revealed that aid money
from international partners, including the United States,
given by the UN to people displaced by conflict and famine in
Somalia, is ending up in the hands of al-Shabaab.
Though many things in Somalia have changed over the past 30
years, using international aid money to fund a non-state actor’s
mission is a common tactic used by many throughout the country’s
history. During the Somali famine of 1991 and 1992, local warlords
deliberately starved thousands of Somalis in order to profit from
constantly incoming international aid money. Scenes of mass
death on the streets of the Somali city Baidoa in 1992 provoked
the US to lead a multinational UN-backed military intervention,
which led to the infamous 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. In Baidoa
back then, aid organizations were so desperate to help the starving
people that they paid warlords to permit access to starving victims.
Until Western nations intervened, the warlords worked to
sustain the famine in order to keep the aid money flowing into their
organizations. However, the paramount difference between then
and now is the money went into the hands of local gangsters, not
international terrorist organizations.
People in Somalia who have fled their homes and are living in a
sprawling camp in the city of Baidoa are screened by the UN and
issued cash cards which enables them to buy essentials from local
merchants. Therefore, local businessmen now transport food
bought on the open market to places like Baidoa, where internally
displaced people arrive every day. However, the problem is that
these men transporting food must pay al-Shabaab, who control
the main road that leads into the city. Former members of al-Shabaab,
along with Somali intelligence agents, have reported that
tolls taken from trucks and other vehicles at just two al-Shabaab
roadblocks on Somalia's busiest road, amount to thousands of
dollars every day. The UN released a report on February 15, 2018,
which stated that a single roadblock, on the road to Baidoa, generates
about $5,000 per day.
The UN report also stated that the ongoing drought will once again
threaten Somalia with famine and provide al-Shabaab with even
greater opportunities to make money from foreign aid; particularly
if the group maintains control of the main routes through the interior
of the country. For now, the country's primary fighting force is
a 22,000-strong African Union (AU) contingent that has been protecting
the country's government in Mogadishu, and working to regain
control of southern Somalia back from al-Shabaab. However,
the AU troops are slowly withdrawing and are expected to leave
the country in two years’ time. This withdrawal is due to the AU
military leadership admitting that it is unable to push al-Shabaab
off the major roads that provide it with so much income, and as it
stands, any reduction in AU forces would inevitably leave a vacuum
that al-Shabaab will quickly fill.