Dr Salihu Abubakar, Acting Nigerian Ambassador to Senegal, addressing some Nigerian girls who are rescued from sexual exploitation in Tamaccounda and Kedougou Regions of Senegal shortly before their repatriation to Nigeria from Dakar, Senegal on June 22, 2024
Embassy, NGO rescue 24 victims of sexual violence in Senegal
Exploitation
By Abdullahi Mohammed
Dakar, June 23, 2024(NAN) The combined operatives of Nigerian Embassy and a Senegalese-based NGO have in an overnight operation rescued 24 Nigerian girls who were subjected to sexual exploitation in Tamaccounda and Kedougou Regions of Senegal.
Dr Salihu Abubakar, the acting Ambassador in the Nigerian Embassy in Dakar, Senegal disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dakar on Sunday.
According to him, the girls mostly under-aged, ranging between the ages of 11, 13 and 24 are being trafficked to Senegal, through Cotonou, Republic of Benin, via Mali to Senegal border for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Tamaccounda and Kedougou Regions.
“These girls and many more are being trafficked to Senegal, through Cotonou, Benin Republic via Mali to the Senegal border for prostitution,” the diplomat said.
Abubakar said preliminary investigation revealed that most of the girls, who were school dropouts were from Edo and Delta, adding that a few of them were from Imo and Abia while two others were from Plateau.
He, however, said of the 24, 22 were already repatriated weeks ago while the two other ladies were repatriated to Nigeria on Saturday and had landed in Nigeria safely.
The diplomat could not immediately give the details of the health status of the victims and other information regarding the time they spent while undergoing sexual exploitation in Senegal.
The envoy said that the successful repatriation of the girls to Nigeria was as a clear indication of the strengthened international cooperation in combating human trafficking between the embassy and the Senegalese-based NGO, “Free the Slaves” (La Lumiere in French).
“Our main goal and number one priority is to discourage the trafficking of our Nigerian girls to any part of the world for prostitution under any disguise,” Abubakar said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
The DG of GIABA, Mr Edwin Harris Jr, middle; to his left, Ms Ramatoulaye Gadio Aigne, Head of FIU and GIABA’s National Correspondent for Senegal and other dignitaries at the launching of the 2023 GIABA Annual report in Dakar on June 13
An analysis by Abdullahi Mohammed, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
The Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) is not leaving any stone unturned in its fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.
In its Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) report presented at the meeting of ambassadors of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Dakar, Senegal, from June 13 to 14, GIABA highlighted how it had waged a war against Transnational Organised Crimes (TOCs).
At the meeting, specifically designed for Ambassadors of the 15 ECOWAS member states, technical and financial partners, GIABA outlined its new strategies to deal with TOCs in countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.
The new strategies were prompted by four different reports by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), which indicted the five countries.
The GIABA report also highlighted the progress made by Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal in the implementation of their respective action plans agreed with the International Cooperation Reviewed Group (ICRG).
The report further indicated the institution’s steady progress in strengthening regional and international cooperation against money laundering and financing of terrorism and firearms proliferation.
GIABA’s overall communication, advocacy and stakeholders’ engagement, according to the report, also witnessed significant boost in 2023, with about 96 per cent fully implemented.
Edwin Harris Jr, GIABA’s Director General, reassured the ECOWAS ambassadors at the Dakar conference of his institution’s commitment to continue to be on top of the situation in 2024 and beyond.
“Despite the challenges posed by the changing global trends and emerging threats, the GIABA Secretariat during its 24 years of existence has focused its interventions on protecting national economies and countries’ financial and banking systems from laundering the proceeds of crime and combating the financing of terrorism,” he said.
Harris said GIABA had also improved measures, intensified efforts to combat the laundering of proceeds of crime and strengthened national and international cooperation.
According to the director general, GIABA has increased its efforts and sped up the implementation of strategic plan from 2023 to 2027, providing technical assistance, capacity building and policy guidance to member states, thereby empowering them to implement robust measures to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.
“Similarly, there have been workshops and training programmes to strengthen the knowledge and skills of our stakeholders, including Financial Intelligence Units (FIU), criminal investigation and prosecution authorities and the private sector.
“These initiatives have fostered greater collaboration, information sharing and coordinated action, strengthening our collective ability to detect and investigate financial crimes and to prosecute them,” Harris explained.
Despite the complexities of West Africa and operations of high level criminal syndicates, GIABA has made it difficult for the TOC syndicates to be in total control of national economies and security.
Part of GIABA’s strategies in winning the war against money laundering and terrorism financing is co-opting journalists into the battle.
Hence, as part of the Dakar meeting, the organisation trained selected journalists from ECOWAS member states on the intricacies of reporting money laundering and terrorism financing.
Mr Djaha Benoit who presented a paper on, “Corruption and Tax Fraud Threat linked to Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing,” drew the attention of the journalists to the danger associated with underpublicising TOCs in the Sahel.
There was understandable assurance from the journalists from the region that henceforth, thorough investigative techniques would be applied in reporting the war against the activities of the most dangerous regional criminal groups.
The journalists agreed to form a network to tackle the issues through periodic investigation of TOCs.
This is to ascertain the level of progress in the war against criminality and to further expose the new methods of criminal activities adopted by the syndicates, among other things.
Benoit also expressed worry over the inability of the GIABA secretariat to support the media with the required data on TOCs in the Sahel.
He noted that the journalists would be able to showcase the impact of damages incurred as a result of TOCs if such data were handy.
He encouraged the media to try and get the data in their respective countries in order to background their stories with accurate information based on facts and figures.
On technical compliance, the GIABA report also demonstrated the commitment of some member states toward achieving technical compliance ratings in their respective countries.
These are issues which the specialised ECOWAS institution expects regional journalists to focus on as part of the new strategies.
The media is expected to propel its AML/CFT campaign toward improving the overall agenda of GIABA for making West African states to be free of money laundering and terrorism financing crimes, among others.
The journalists were taught how to use the GIABA annual report as a tool in their respective countries to pursue the media campaign against crime and criminality in West Africa.
Idrissa Ouattara, a research assistant at GIABA’s Secretariat, insists on the need for the regional journalists to develop the habit of doing their job with passion and curiosity to know how to tackle the problems associated with the beneficial ownership issues in the AML/CFT regimes.
“The moment the journalists understand the rate of illegal activities going on there, the sooner the criminal entities will be exposed,” he said.
The researcher, who spoke on, “Beneficial Ownership in Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime,” said the importance of digging out information on beneficial ownership of anti-money laundering and terrorism financing could not be overemphasised.
Ouattara said as a researcher, he found it difficult to explain to journalists the simplest ways of retrieving information concealed by beneficial owners and legal entities because of the technicalities involved.
He said the aim of his paper was to acquaint journalists with the knowledge of their role as investigative reporters in digging out information on those who benefit from money laundering and terrorism financing.
The conference tasked the journalists to identify deficiencies in the AML/CFT systems of their respective countries as contained in the report, and ensure they became running stories until GIABA’s mandate was achieved.
There is also an urgent need for the GIABA’s Secretariat to initiate the process of collecting data from member states to enable the institution build its database for proper utilisation of information with facts and figures.
This could be achieved through the communication, advocacy and stakeholders’ mobilisation visits, especially when dealing with higher authorities during high level advocacy mission.
This is not going to be impossible for GIABA as pin pointed by the Head of GIABA’s Media, Mr Tim Melaye, during his presentation at the Dakar meeting.
Malaye said the high level advocacy mission was an avenue for the sensitisation of high-level authorities on the need for political commitment and adequate support for the implication of effective AML/CFT regimes in the member states.
As such, if GIABA pushes for the collection of data on arrests, seizures and prosecution of criminals operating within the region, the efforts of the stakeholders and the media will be highly appreciated. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Salif Atojoko
…………………….. if used please credit the writer and the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Participants at GIABA’s event in Dakar, Senegal, on Thursday
Report
By Abdullahi Mohammed
Dakar, June 13, 2024 (NAN) GIABA, an inter-governmental action group against money laundering in West Africa, says Nigeria recorded significant achievements in its war against money laundering and terrorism financing in 2023.
GIABA said this in its 2023 annual report unveiled for ambassadors of member states, technical and financial partners on Thursday in Dakar, Senegal.
According to the report, Nigeria made progress in addressing the technical compliance identified in GIABA’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) in relation to various recommendations made to the country.
The report further said Nigeria had taken several measures to promote transparency and accountability in the administration and management of Non Profit Organisations (NPOs).
It added that the country also raised awareness in the financial sector about the vulnerabilities to Terrorist Financing (TF), developed and refined best practices in collaboration with the NPOs sector to address the deficiencies and challenge information on NPOs suspected to be at risk in terrorism abuse.
“Nigeria demonstrated that it has mechanisms for international cooperation and procedures to respond to international requests for information on NPOs suspected of terrorist financing or involved in other forms of support for terrorists.
“Nigeria demonstrated that it has a system for maintaining statistics on its Anti-money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system,” the report said.
Despite the progress made in the country, the report, however, said the requirements for application of simplified due diligence measures were not consistent with the country’s assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
It added that the country did not demonstrate compliance with its internal procedures to designate target pursuit to United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR).
The report noted that GIABA had discussed and adopted the MERs of Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Guinea, which indicated that 88 per cent of the member states had been assessed.
It said the performance of Cote d’Ivoire showed that the country required major improvements in its AML/CFT regime in relation to its understanding of the risks, among others.
Similarly, the report said Liberia had demonstrated low effectiveness on 10 of the 11 parameters, noting that its shortcomings had impacted effectiveness such as lack of comprehensiveness of National Risk Assessment (NRA) in some areas.
It also said Guinea demonstrated low effectiveness on all the 11 parameters, indicating that the country required fundamental improvements of AML/CFT regimes.
Earlier, GIABA’s Director General, Mr Edwin Harris Jr, said this year marked the 24th anniversary of the fight against money laundering, “a mandate that has evolved to adapt to changes, and which now includes the fight against the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
“GIABA is the response to the call of the international community for an alliance against transnational organised crime and its harmful effects on peace, security, stability and economic development of our member states.
“In June 2006, through relentless efforts and stakeholders’ mobilisation, GIABA was granted the status of a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-Style Regional Body (FSRB) and in June 2010 became an Associate Member of FATF.
“There is no doubt that our West African space is highly vulnerable to carry with it many consequences of money laundering and terrorist financing, and without a strong political commitment to combat it, the negative impacts on our economies will be enormous,” he said.
The director general said it was important for all the stakeholders to fully understand the need to take ownership of the fight and appreciate their contribution to building economies and by extension, the communities to achieve GIABA’s desired common prosperity.
“This is also in line with the core objective of the GIABA’s Strategic Plan 2023-2027 that focuses on sensitisation for the benefit of the various targeted audiences,” he said.
Despite challenges posed by the changing global trends and emerging threats, Harris said GIABA had focused its interventions on protecting national economies and their financial and banking systems from laundering the proceeds of crime and combating the financing of terrorism.
He said the organisation had also improved measures, intensified efforts to combat the laundering of proceeds of crime and strengthened national and international cooperation.
“Beyond information, these sessions aim to encourage the governments of member states to act in the relevant areas of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing for the integrity of their economic and financial systems.
“By so doing, we are calling on you all to add your voices to the authorities back home, to strengthen the AML/CFT regimes in your countries,” Harris said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports GIABA is a specialised institution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) responsible for strengthening the capacity of member states toward the prevention and control of money laundering and terrorist financing in the region.
In addition to that, GIABA also grants observer status to African, non-African states and inter-governmental organisations that support its objectives and actions that apply for observer status. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
