Last updated on June 21, 2025
“Drugs are just one of the problems,” said Dr Becker. “And it is getting worse, according to the embassy briefing I’ve received. We all know that the Sahara has become the transit point for shipments from South America, heading for Europe. That’s not new. But the big problem, the main problem now, is Al Qaeda. They are increasingly active. They are targeting this whole region. The whole of West Africa. All these traditionally moderate Muslim countries. They view them as a place for expansion. They are trying to radicalize the people. That’s why we see them in the markets more and more. Talking to local people.”
“It’s also all these new Saudi-sponsored mosques in town,” said Dr Steyn. “There are more than a dozen of them. All recent. They send their imams from Saudi Arabia. Telling the women they have to wear veils and the men that they have to stop drinking alcohol and stop talking to people of other religions.”
“Yes, that’s exactly right. And according to the briefing I received, both Al Qaeda and the new mosques are recruiting young men, sending them off for training at madrassas in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. These men come back home with radically new beliefs. They’re not tolerant anymore. They hate the West, hate America, hate Christians.”
Dr Becker paused and glanced around. He looked a forlorn figure, with his white hair and lined face and wire-rimmed spectacles that sat at the end of his nose. “And then there are the Tuaregs. Thousands of them were forced to escape from Libya after the fall of Gaddafi, and now they’re back home, heavily armed and stirring up trouble. They’ve renewed their war of liberation against the government.”
“Are they a threat to us?”
“They’re a threat to everyone. They say they want self-rule. But a lot of criminal elements are involved as well. They’re involved in kidnapping. Extortion. Whatever. Westerners will always be a target. And they are all mixed up together.”
“Who are?”
“Al Qaeda. The Tuaregs. The drug dealers. Sometimes they’re enemies, fighting each other. But sometimes they’re friends, when it suits them. This whole region is becoming a lawless Wild West.” He looked at Bobby, the only American in the room, as if he were somehow responsible for all lawless Wild Wests around the world.
“So what does all this mean?” asked Dr Ryu.
“It means our hospital is a target.”
It was as I was completing the book that news came through that Tuaregs – the traditional desert nomads of the Sahara – had rebelled against the Malian government and captured about half the country, including the region where my fictional mission hospital was located. They were supported by elements of Al Qaeda, who quickly moved against all churches and Christians in the region. They certainly would have closed down my hospital.
Martin Roth is a veteran journalist and foreign correspondent whose reports from Asia have appeared in leading publications around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and The Guardian. He is the author of many books.
His Brother Half Angel international thrillers focus on the persecuted church. They feature Brother Half Angel, an abrasive former military man who heads a clandestine new military order that is dedicated to fighting for the rights of persecuted Christians around the world.
The five books in the series are The Coptic Martyr of Cairo, Brother Half Angel, The Maria Kannon, Military Orders, and Festival in the Desert.
He is also the author of the Johnny Ravine Private Eye Series, with Prophets and Loss, Hot Rock Dreaming (Australian Christian Book of the Year finalist), Burning at the Boss, and the Feisty Ferreira Series of financial thrillers – Tokyo Bossa Nova and The Kalgoorlie Skimpy.
He lives in Australia with his Korean wife and three sons.
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