Kufra
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Kufra (also spelled Cufra) is an Oasis in Southeastern Libya that played a minor role in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. It is in a particularly isolated location not only because it is in the middle of the Sahara Desert but also because it is surrounded on three sides by Depressions, to the North and East specifically by the Qattara Depression. The French spelling is Kufra, the Italian Cufra.
The Buma airfield at Kufra has fallen into disrepair and is little-used since World War II. The town surrounding the Oasis is dominated by the old fort of El Tag, built by the Italians in the mid-1930s. The fort was also used as a radio post to guide in Italian aircraft as well as to maintain communication with Italian East Africa. These factors, along with Kufra's dominance of the Fezzan region of Libya, explains the Oasis' strategic importance and why it was a point of conflict during World War II.
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[edit] Pre-1931
Prior to World War II Kufra was an important trade/travelling route for various nomadic desert people including the Senussi who made the Oasis their capital at one point in response to encroaching British, Italian and French designs on the region. When it appeared the Italians were the most aggressive nation in the region the Senussi called upon the French to help defend their capital. This probably was the provocation that actually stepped up Italian aggression in the area. The Italians took Kufra in 1931.
[edit] History
In the past the oasis was inhabited by the nomadic people Tebu, who later on were assaulted by the Arabs from Cyrenaica and therefore had to move backwards in the Tibesti territory.
The territory of Kufra was first explored in 1879 by the German Gerhard Rohlfs.
From 1895 onwards Kufra became the main centre of Senussi and visitors no longer had the chance to visit it. Senussi fought against the French expansion in the Algerian Sahara unsuccessfully and later on tried to prevent the Italian from conquering Libya.
The Italians came to Kufra in 1931. When the Italian interest in this strategic region became evident, Senussi asked the French army to defend them. The French army established there some riflemen's companies and three groups of meharist, beside a 2.95 inches cannon. General Rodolfo Graziani easily conquered Kufra, leading about 3000 soldiers from infantry and artillery, supported by about twenty bombers.
In the following years Italians built a tiny airport and a fort (al-Tag), which dominated the area. The airport, equipped with a relevant radio-centre for flight assistance, was named "Buma" and was often used as a stop for the routes toward Asmara and Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI).
Kufra increased its importance when Second World War started and, in conjunction with the closure of the Suez channel, the connections with AOI became mainly aerial, thanks to this spot and its important protractor. After falling to an attack by General Leclerc's combined force of Free French and Chad native troops, on 1 March 1941, Kufra was also used as a staging post for units such as the Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service.
Kufra, thanks to its key-role for the Italian Royal Army, soon turned to be a focus for the allies; French forces Free France and British desert troops began a long battle for its conquest in March 1941. The Free French from Chad, together with the Long Range Desert Group, attacked and took Kufra - see Battle of Kufra.
[edit] Migrants' routes through Kufra
Migrants coming from the East African coast and the Near East pass through and compulsorily stop in Kufra. It is a little village of transit along the traditional route between Khartum and the coastal Libyan towns, which has lately turned to be a spot gathering Libyan-Sudanese criminal organizations involved in the illegal transport of immigrants, police officers controlling the boundaries and the need of people working in local productive activities.
The village of Kufra has long been inspected and accused by European Parliamentary delegations, which have recently defined it as [1] a “free zone, a sort of starting Centre of Temporary Permanence CPT against the law... These gathering centres are places, in which the first contacts with the criminal organizations occur. Such organizations promote the "journey of hope", with a flexible handling of the Migrants' African routes according to the restriction policies adopted by the various governments. The minds of the criminal organizations act accordingly to what happens in each country: if Morocco stresses its restrain policies, the routes move towards the Canary Islands, if the controls in Libya increase, the streams are diverted towards Malta. When the migratory stream is over, the routes are back on Libya and Tunisia."
The 1500 km (about 950 miles) long route towards the coastal Libyan towns is done at night on covered trucks. Such journey conditions are described as "hellish". People are often stopped by the police and therefore the route is covered many times in both directions. Once the migrants arrive, or are brought back, in Kufra, the only way to escape this situation is to pay people traders, which are often colluded with the police officers. People brought back to the Sudanese border may reverse the course just with cash money. Hence the occurrence of continuous exploitation, enlistment in the work and prostitution black market, painful waiting for a money order urged by relatives and friends through mobile phone communications, which are allowed only for this aim.
Kufra jail is defined [2] by Ethiopian ed Eritrean migrants, who stayed there, as:
...a place of death. When you hear the sound of the keys in the cell lock your blood freezes. You have to turn towards the wall. If you look them in the eyes, they beat you repeteadly. (Daniel, 22 years old, from Eritrea)
We were about 700 people, about 100 Ethiopians, 200 Eritreans and 400 from Chad and Sudan. We slept on the floor, one on the other, there wasn't even a place to lay down. For lunch: a fist of white rice for the all day, less than 570 grams each. There were also some baguettes, but you nedded money to get them... (an ex-colonel of the Eritrean army, political refugee in Italy)
When I saw Kufra I wanted to hitch up. They took my mobile phone and all the money I had in my pocket and put me in to a cell with other 20 people. There is no need in telling you about the dirt, hunger and continuous humiliations. There were also cells for women and children. They were kept separated from us. Women won't ever tell the truth because of shame, but it's useful to make everybody aware of what happened to women in Kufra. They were raped in front of their husbands, their brothers. They used pieces of iron, sticks... It's shameful. They treated us like beasts. (Yakob, another boy from Eritrea)
Kufra (like Dirkou in Niger, Oujda in Morocco, Nouadhibou in Mauritania, Tinzouatine in Algeria, etc.) are the new places of human trade and of exploitment of the illegal migrants' situation through Saharan routes. According to Gabriele Del Grande's point of view “the money involved in Saharan illegal emigration, including extorsions and ravages, is worth till 20 millions € per year. Military forces and passeurs are the usual receivers of these amounts of money. Illegal migrants have to give them till the last cent. If you are broke, you are a dead man. Hundreds, or even thousands, of migrants have been stuck for years in the oasis of Dirkou and Madama. These are the new Tuareg slaves. Boys and girls work day and night just for a bunch of rice and a little money. Life in the desert is hanging on a thread. If the engine doesn't work, the car gets stuck into the sand or the driver decides to leave the passengers and go back alone, the game is over. Within a distance of hundreds km there is nothing apart from sand. ”[3]
[edit] Kufra agriculture
At the beginning of the '70s, Libya launched in Kufra a great cultivation project aimed at developing agriculture in the desert. Irrigation is provided by fossil water beneath the ground surface, i.e. non-renewable source, and it is the only accessible water resource in the area. Rotors (high sprinkler that rotates) provide irrigation and the obtained circles have a diameter af about 1 km and can be observed from the space.
[edit] Related pages
- Libya
- Kufra Battle
- Rodolfo Graziani
- Migrants' African routes
[edit] Sources
- The opening section was created by this article's author's memory with secondary sources of both the above and Europa's Wavell's War.
- The Battle for Kufra: http://www.battlefront.co.nz/Article.asp?ArticleID==465.
- The basis for the pre-1931 section is Wikipedia's own Senussi page.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Limes" 4, 2007: 158. Original quotes in Italian: * ...una zona franca, una sorta di CPT di partenza, fuori dalla sovranità della legge... È in questi centri di raccolta che avvengono i primi contatti tra le organizzazioni criminali che promuovono il "viaggio della speranza", con una gestione flessibile delle rotte in rapporto agli indirizzi di contrasto dei diversi governi. I cervelli delle organizzazioni criminali analizzano quanto accade nei singoli paesi e agiscono di conseguenza: se si accentua la repressione in Marocco, le rotte si spostano sulle Canarie, se si intensificano i controlli sulla Libia, si dirottano i flussi su Malta; passata l’ondata, si ritorna in Libia o in Tunisia.
- ^ "Mamadou va a morire"; testimonianze registrate da Gabriele Del Grande, 2007, pp. 126-127. Original quotes in Italian:
- ...un luogo di morte. Quando senti il rumore delle chiavi nella serratura della cella ti si gela il sangue. Devi voltarti verso il muro. Se li guardi negli occhi ti riempiono di botte. (Daniel, 22 anni, eritreo)
- Eravamo almeno 700, circa 100 etiopi, 200 eritrei e 400 da Chad e Sudan. Dormivamo per terra, uno sull’altro, non c’era nemmeno il posto per sdraiarsi. Pranzo unico: un pugno di riso bianco per tutta la giornata, 20 grammi a testa. C’erano anche delle baguette, ma per quelle bisognava pagare... (un ex-colonnello dell’esercito eritreo rifugiato politico in Italia)
- Io quando ho visto Cufra volevo impiccarmi. Mi avevano portato via il cellulare e tutti i soldi che avevo in tasca e mi avevano sbattuto in cella con altre 20 persone. Non ti dico lo sporco, la fame, le umiliazioni continue. C’erano anche delle celle per le donne e bambini. Le tenevano a parte. Le donne non te lo diranno mai per vergogna, ma è bene che si sappia quello che fanno alle donne a Cufra. Le stupravano davanti ai mariti, ai fratelli. Usavano ferri, bastoni... E’ vergognoso. Ci trattavano come bestie. (Yakob, un altro ragazzo eritreo.)
- ^ Del Grande, op. cit., 2007: 128. Original quotes in Italian: ...il giro d’affari dell’emigrazione clandestina nel Sahara, tra estorsioni e razzie vale fino a 20 milioni di euro l’anno. Soldi che vanno in tasca a passeurs e militari. I clandestini sono spremuti fino all’ultimo centesimo. E chi rimane al verde è un uomo morto. In centinaia, se non addirittura in migliaia, vivono bloccati da anni nelle oasi di Dirkou e Madama. Sono i nuovi schiavi dei tuareg. Ragazzi e ragazze, lavorano giorno e notte per un pugno di riso e pochi centesimi. La vita nel deserto è appesa a un filo. Se il motore va in panne, l’auto si insabbia o l’autista decide di abbandonare i passeggeri e tornarsene indietro da solo, è finita. Nel raggio di centinaia di chilometri non c’è altro che sabbia.
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