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THE INKERMAN GROUP IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

Click here to read the latest on the situation in the MENA region from The Inkerman Group

Since the beginning of the turmoil in the MENA region, The Inkerman Group has continued to provide a wide spectrum of services to its clients – working with them to minimise the risk to the safety of both their staff and assets, and reduce the disruption caused to their business operations.

The Inkerman Group has multiple operational teams in the region and is providing a wide range of services:

Discreet Security Protection Personnel
(use of ex-UK police and military personnel, complete with communications support, GPS tracking and medical trauma equipment for first line support to clients).

Security and Contingency Planning:

Intelligence monitoring and reporting throughout the region:

Kidnap & Ransom:

In-country operations supported by:

Crisis Management Training and support

Security Awareness Training to workers and families (delivered in multiple languages and including elements of basic self-defence, medical awareness training as well as basic security driver awareness training)

Security Training to locally employed / retained security guards to include development of operating protocols in line with clients’ operating stance.

For further details of these services, please contact operations@inkerman.com

MENA Examiner - a weekly publication which is a predictive move aimed at mapping out the threats and risks facing clients across the region. It includes weekly trend reports detailing the situation to date and the way ahead for each country in the eighteen member region, from Morocco in the West to Iran in the East. The document provides an assessment of developments taking place across the region, providing travellers and businesses operating in these countries with a comprehensive overview of the risk level alongside predictive analysis of the potential outcomes.

LATEST UPDATE ON THE MENA REGION FROM THE INKERMAN GROUP

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains in flux following the region-wide unrest which began in January 2011, and continues two years on into Spring - Summer 2013. The so-called “Arab Spring” manifested itself in different ways: largely following the same pattern of calls for reform, transparency and greater representation, through protests, strikes and even armed insurrection. In some cases this led to the downfall of authoritarian regimes which had dominated the political landscape of the region for decades. In others it created a ‘Pandora’s box’ which now cannot and will not be closed.

Libya, which paved the way for regional regime change, has since enjoyed its first successful democratic elections, as well as the selection of its first post-transitional prime minister, Ali Zidan. Despite this positive news, Libya’s security situation remains precarious, as militias frequently engage in clashes whilst the Ministry of the Interior, in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence, attempts to dismantle controversial organisations, such as the Supreme Security Committee (SSC). In neighbouring Tunisia, a familiar storyline has emerged: with each passing week another demonstration emerges, and quickly evaporates from news headlines, leaving the country’s considerable unemployed population increasingly disillusioned with the post-Ben Ali world. Although citizens enjoy a sense of pride that their revolution was the spark that ignited a wave of pro-democratic demonstrations across the MENA, there is an increasing sense of disappointment among those who feel that not enough has changed within their Maghreb state. Indeed, some have even noted a return to the policies of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In Algeria, sporadic eruptions in civil unrest, particularly within the country’s hydrocarbon-rich south, has led some to question the authority of the infamous “le Pouvoir”. Led by long-standing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the ruling Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) has been called to task over its ability to appease the largely unemployed population zones of Ouargla and Rafla, whilst simultaneously preventing further security setbacks at lucrative energy facilities like that of the recent In Aménas hostage crisis.

Meanwhile, although Egypt achieved a change to their leadership, first through sustained protests and later through ‘free’ parliamentary elections (November 2011 and October 2011 respectively), but the election of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi to the role of Egyptian President in June 2012, (realising a hand over to civilian rule), remains controversial. The Islamist leaning Shura parliament and Muslim Brotherhood-led government finds themselves in an uneasy but unavoidable alliance with the military in order to prevent a security vacuum and economic crisis from crippling the country. The bulk of leftists, secularists and liberal opposition have formed a fragile coalition, the National Salvation Front, to confront the MB at parliamentary elections this year, but following Morsi’s issuance of decrees awarding him sweeping powers to push through a new constitution, mass protests and violence nationwide was the result. The Front then declared a boycott of the polls set for Spring, but now remain limbo following court action. Cairo is also yet to agree a substantial loan with the IMF, foreign reserves are falling to drastic levels and anarchy remains in the Sinai with a spate of kidnaps against tourists largely by criminal gangs and Bedouin highlighting a worrying trend. Elsewhere sporadic Black Bloc attributed actions against government sites continue to take place in Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile Delta region.

Calls for reform persist in Morocco as well as across the majority of the Gulf States (Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia). Mass violent government crackdowns continue throughout Syria, Yemen (the latter despite an April 2013 National Dialogue as it aims to repair the security void for which AQAP has spread throughout the southern region) and Bahrain (as daily protests continue for greater political reform and inclusion for the Shia majority).

Elsewhere, countries such as Iran (awaiting an international response to its nuclear programme in the lead-up to Iran's presidential election in June), Iraq (adapting after the US troop withdrawal), Israel (in a post election environment and wary of threats from Gaza, Iran and Syria) and Lebanon (experiencing the fall-out from the Syrian civil war via increased kidnap trends and a fallen government) are dealing with their own domestic political problems, in addition to being impacted by the unrest in neighbouring countries. In short, the majority of states continue to experience a transition period, and it is as yet unclear as to the future direction their revised or new governments may take.”

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