Angola

Angola is a former Portuguese colony located in southwest Africa. If you take a closer look at the map, you will notice that Angola has an exclave, Cabinda. Separated by D.R. Congo's small coastal strip, Cabinda was, like Angola, a Portuguese territory.

Seriously, it's bigger than Delaware....it's HUGE!

Throughout most of its colonial era, Cabinda, known as Portuguese Congo, was administered separate from Angola. When the end of Portugal's rule over its African dominions was nigh, and every territory had its own local army fighting for freedom, Cabinda was no exception. MLEC (Movement for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) was formed in 1960, followed in 1963 by FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda). Unfortunately for the people of Cabinda, in 1967 oil was discovered offshore. A lot of it. In fact, between 60 & 70% of Angola's oil comes from these offshore deposits. That increased the determination of Angola's three independence movements to not let Cabinda have a say in its future. After Portugal's Carnation Revolution in 1974, the three groups (UNITA, FNLA, & MPLA) met with the Lisbon government to establish a timetable for the withdraw of Portuguese forces. With the subsequent Alvor Agreement, it was decided that independence would come in November 1975. It was also decreed that Cabinda was to be considered an integral part of Angola. Neither FLEC nor any other organization representing Cabinda was party to the agreement. 

And thus it came to pass that on August 1, 1975, Cabinda went ahead and declared independence. It lasted until November of the same year. After Angolan independence, and before the decades-long Angolan Civil War really kicked into high gear, MPLA forces invaded Cabinda. Previously, Cabindan efforts at international recognition had been limited to the leaders of both Congos jockeying with each other in order to eventually annex an independent Cabinda. Now, FLEC didn't even have that support. (African countries have a policy of trying to maintain the border situations that existed at independence- they don't want to have to go the very big hassle of trying to create more logical borders than the ones left behind by the Europeans). Nonetheless, Cabindans have maintained a low-level war of independence for several decades. Usually, their modus operandi has been to kidnap foreign oil workers in order to draw attention to their plight. Unlike the situation in the Niger Delta, these oil workers often get released after a couple months because no international media publicizes the situation. However, back in January 2010, Cabinda managed to make the international news outlets when a faction of FLEC attacked a convoy carrying the Togolese soccer/football team to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations tournament, which was being held in Angola that year; three people died in the half-hour attack. It was claimed that the attackers were attempting to ambush only the Angolan forces at the head of the convoy. International condemnation followed, which generally isn't something you want when you are trying to win world opinion over to your cause.

It's hard enough being Delaware at war with Texas...don't piss off Togo too.

Algeria

Algeria is currently experiencing a multi-city outbreak of protests. Government buildings have been occupied or set alight. The reasons for this are ostensibly simple: high unemployment, housing shortages and a recent sharp increase in food prices. But Algeria's problems are much deeper than that, with many different layers of conflict going on simultaneously.


What's going on?
Algeria does not have to be a second-world nation. The country has large deposits of petroleum and natural gas which leads to budget surpluses that could be used to further develop the national infrastructure. But instead the government, with the military as the power broker, funnels large amounts of funds into foreign bank accounts. In addition, the military demands a large share of government revenue due to the constant threat of perceived internal enemies of the state. 

Self-fulfilling prophecy
The only reason that there are "threats to the state" is because the government has been dictatorially-minded during all 48 years of independence. Granted, the bitter war of independence, with an approximate million deaths in less than 7.5 years, would leave Algeria traumatized, but leader after leader has been autocratic to the point of being a dictator. The only non-dictatorial leaders have been puppets of the military. So here is a large country with a rapidly-growing and increasingly educated population with no freedom of the press, no right of dissent, no freedom of expression, and no opposition parties. Many were angry at the government, but they were equally as suspicious of the other groups that were in opposition to the government. Communists distrusted democracy advocates. Both, perhaps alarmed by the results of the Iranian Revolution, were deeply distrustful of the Islamists. And all were disdainful of the Berbers who had grown tired of having their distinctive culture overwhelmed by the majority Arab culture (e.g. no teaching of Berber in the schools). The pressure on Algeria's strongman government kept on growing.

Lead-up to the current situation
And so, by 1990, Algeria's government was up against two very strong but diametrically opposed factions: socialists and Islamists. Elections were finally held: the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the first round. Before the second round could occur, the military stepped in, dismissed the president and banned all political parties based on religion. This led to the Algerian Civil War. For a solid decade, both the military and their foes, the Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA) & the Islamic Armed Movement (MIA), played dirty hardball. Over 160,000 people died, many gruesomely. The tourism industry was decimated as tourists were specifically targeted by the rebels. Many average Algerians were caught in the middle; all they wanted was to make a living. Instead, they were being beheaded or set on fire in front of their families. Many just "disappeared". Both sides committed atrocities and blamed the other for doing them. Slowly, the insurrection lost its momentum, especially after a government amnesty program was enacted.
However, the problems that led to Algeria's violent past have not been corrected for the most part. On the positive side, Berbers have some more recognition as a separate culture nowadays, with  Tamazight a "national language" and students being educated in the tongue.
So much for the positives.

The problems
-Currently, many of Algeria's most powerful figures were important during the days of the early 90s coup and its aftermath. To the West, this is not a problem, as these men have proven that they're serious about combating the spread of fundamentalist Islam.
-The Islamic insurrection never did completely fade away. As Groupe Islamique Armé declined, it was replaced in importance by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an organization that has allied itself with the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. However, there are those who say that all of these ne'er-do-well groups are mostly just hype created by the Algerian government in order to maintain a good standing with our fervently anti-terrorist military-industrial-congressional complex.
-Normal Algerians have not been isolated from the world at large. They know that just across the Mediterranean are countries whose people can access the Internet, assemble in large groups, read uncensored news. Algeria however, has recently joined the ranks of Islamic countries that apply censorship to the Internet: the Algerian political website Rachad, founded by former members of FIS has become inaccessible to Algerians. This is in addition to a 2001 amendment to the penal code provisions relating to defamation and slander, widely seen as an effort to keep the press under control. This is infuriating to many of the people.


And so, here are a bunch of un- and underemployed Algerians watching their national infrastructure falling apart due to lack of investment even while many of their rulers are obviously making out like bandits. They are angry at having no ability to make ends meet nor even to find a decent place to live. And they can't even bitch about how life sucks without offending someone from the ruling class and perhaps putting themselves into a difficult, if not dangerous, situation. No wonder things are burning here. Although these revolts tend to blow over after a relatively short time, the United States needs to realize that by supporting despots, we will inevitably have to face another situation like late 70s Iran. All across the Middle East & North Africa, the West is seen as propping up bad guys. We must be careful.