Mozambique: Drug trafficking funds terrorist networks – USA

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Mozambique: Drug trafficking funds terrorist networks – USA

4:06 CAT | 21 Jul 2020

File photo: AFP

The US said on Tuesday drug trafficking off the coast of Mozambique was the main source of funding for terrorist networks, a situation that led Washington to strengthen support for Maputo through international partners.

In a telephone press conference today, Heather Merritt, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs , explained that “there’s a lot of overlap between the drug traffickers and extremists and the types of conditions that enable them to thrive, and sadly, those conditions are present in Mozambique”.

“We are very concerned about Mozambique” and the “recent positions on the ground by criminal organisations,” she said, in reference to the armed attacks in northern Mozambique, which have been claimed by the ‘jihadist’ terrorist movement Islamic State.

“Drugs finance criminal networks in which terrorists operate,” Heather Merritt explained in response to Lusa.

According to Merritt, the United States is “monitoring Mozambique in particular” because it “is one of the main entry points” for heroin produced in Afghanistan.

“In East Africa, we are working with heroin circuits” that use “boats from Iran and Pakistan,” she added.

Heather Merritt acknowledged that “Mozambique has a very long coastline” and “a lack of means to keep watch. This “was an advantage for criminal agents.

Currently, the United States is “supporting the government of Mozambique” in combating terrorism, seeking to “train civilians and security forces” in conjunction with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in order to “break the chains of international trafficking” to terrorist networks on the ground, she added.

“Drug trafficking is a growing problem in Africa,” she acknowledged, noting that the east of the continent is permeable to the arrival of drugs, from “Tanzania, Kenya to Mozambique,” which is the “most complex case” because “there is support on the ground” for traffickers.

The US State Department is “investing heavily in the fight against drug trafficking” in a strategy that aims to “protect the sovereignty of national states” but also “protect the interests of the United States and its nationals”.

To this end, the focus is on strengthening the capacity of local resources, from the police to the judicial systems, with “cross-border coordination among African partners,” explained Heather Merritt.

“If you have corrupt officers it is possible to smuggle illicit goods across borders,” said the deputy secretary of state, justifying the option of a “complete and comprehensive” training of all state elements dealing with the transnational crime phenomenon.

In northern Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado province, the UN, in coordination with the Mozambican government, asked in early June for $35 million (€30 million) for a Rapid Response Plan to be implemented by December.

The population’s flight from their villages has increased rapidly as the violence has grown since the beginning of the year, the UN reports, estimating that there are now 250,000 people who have left everything and sought safe refuge in other villages – in a conflict that has killed at least 1,000 people.

Source: Lusa