Illegal gold mining funding Sahel militants, says Interpol
Dec 22, 2020
Interpol, in collaboration with the United Nations, arrested several suspected terrorists in Africa’s Sahel region.
They retrieved more than 40,000 sticks of dynamite and detonator cords for illegal gold mining, the latest source of illicit funding for armed groups in Africa’s Sahel region.
The seven-day Operation KAFO II, jointly coordinated by Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, targeted trafficking networks at airports, seaports and land borders in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, and Niger.
Officials seized scores of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition, after checking more than 12,000 individuals, vehicles, containers, and goods against international criminal databases, and carrying out physical searches.
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Interpol conducted a seven-day operation between 30 November - 6 December that saw law enforcement officers intercept illicit firearms, ammunition and explosives, and disrupt the trafficking networks used to supply terrorists across West Africa and the Sahel.
The operation dubbed KAFO II, jointly coordinated by Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), frontline officers targeted smuggling hotspots at airports, seaports, and land borders in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Niger.
Officers checked more than 12,000 individuals, vehicles, containers and goods against international criminal databases, and carried out physical searches, to determine if suspects were using stolen travel documents, were known to police in any of INTERPOL’s 194 member countries, or were travelling in a stolen vehicle.
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Women and children walk in a makeshift site for displaced people in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso, this past June. Along with Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso is part of Africa’s Sahel region, where conflict and insecurity are rampant amid weak governance and a lack of development. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)
LYON, France (AFP) Several “suspected terrorists” were arrested and more than 40,000 sticks of dynamite and detonator cords for illegal gold mining a new source of funding for armed groups in the Sahel were seized in a joint operation with the U.N., Interpol said on Monday.
Jointly coordinated by Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the seven-day Operation KAFO II targeted smuggling hotspots at airports, seaports and land borders in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Niger.