HIGHLIGHTS OF NIF ROLE IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA

The Bin Laden Connection
Osama Bin Laden took advantage of Sudan 's "open door" policy for Islamic militants by relocating himself from Saudi Arabia and transporting his terrorist "shock troops" from Afghanistan to Sudan in 1992. There he established a powerful military and political presence, using a variety of business ventures to finance his activities. His move to Sudan came at the invitation of al-Turabi. He reportedly had known Bin Laden since 1984 when the Saudi-born Bin Laden first visited Sudan and became acquainted with the leadership of the Sudanese Islamist movement.
Bin Laden's relocation to Sudan paid big financial dividends for the cash-strapped NIF government and produced substantial economic benefits for the country. Bin Laden joined the Turabi-led NIF with an initial fee of $5 million. He also reportedly brought at least $350 million into the country, and provided valuable services to the Sudanese government, such as floating critical foreign exchange transactions when the government was short of foreign currency. Bin Laden operated through a number of business enterprises. Wadi al-Aqiq served as a holding company in Sudan and has, accordingly, been described as the "mother of other companies." As Al Qaeda solidified its position in Sudan, other business ventures followed, including the Ladin International Company, an import-export concern; Taba Investment, an investment firm; Hijra Construction, which built bridges and roads; Qudarat Transport Company; Khartoum Tannery; and the al Themar al-Mubaraka Company, which grew sesame, peanuts and white corn for the group on a farm near Ed Damazin. At this farm, Al Qaeda provided its members with refresher courses in light weapons and explosives. Among his biggest business achievements, one of Bin Laden's firms built the 700 kilometer road linking Khartoum , Shindi and Atbarah.
A defecting Sudanese military officer who worked closely with Bin Laden's operations in Sudan described Bin Laden's supporters as a highly organized network of armed Islamist groups that traced their roots to the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. In an interview with Human Rights Watch, the defector said the groups were linked through an "advisory committee" which Bin Laden controlled. Among the more than 500 veterans of the Afghan war based in Sudan were Tunisians, Algerians, Sudanese, Saudis, Syrians, Iraqis, Moroccans, Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Chechnyans, Bosnians and six African-Americans. These fighters were organized into groups and dispersed to camps throughout Sudan -- near Khartoum , Port Sudan , the Damazin area of eastern Sudan and at a base in the southern Equatoria province, near the border with Uganda . One base, near Hamesh Koreb along the Eritrea border, was overrun in March 1997 by forces of the Sudanese opposition, who claim they captured large stores of Iranian military equipment there.
The main military camp of the Afghan Arabs, however, was near Soba, ten kilometers south of Khartoum , along the Blue Nile , the same officer said. The Soba camp covered twenty acres and was a highly restricted area. Iranians previously based in Lebanon 's Beka'a Valley were among those involved in training the mujahidin guerrillas at this camp. One account indicates that Bin Ladin financed the building and supervision of 23 camps for Afghanistan 's so-called Arab mujahidin. In 1993, 500 mujahidin fighters from Afghanistan, who were part of the Pakistani Islamist organization, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, were forced out of Pakistan and made their way to Sudan, from whence many went to Somalia to join forces with the Islamist Somali Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AI AI) militia.
According to the military defector, the advisory council included representatives from such far-flung armed groups as the Egyptian Islamic Group, the Oromo Islamic Front in Ethiopia, the Eritrean Islamic Jihad, the Islamic forces of Sheikh Abdullah in Uganda (which later joined the Uganda's rebel Allied Democratic Forces), Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front, and the Moro Liberation Front from Mindanao, Philippines. At the camps, guerrillas were schooled in the use of explosives, forgery, coding, and related skills. Weapons for the guerrillas were imported mainly from Iran and China through Port Sudan , and then trucked to Khartoum where the Ministry of Defense turned them over to Bin Laden's representatives. Some arms were also routinely relocated to a warehouse in Yemen for forwarding to other operational areas on a ship owned by Bin Laden. Officers who carried out successful operations were rewarded with money and arms.

Arabic Forum