In this month of October 2022, for the first time in its history and for four weeks from this Thursday, Gabon presides over the UN Security Council. It succeeds France, which assumed this rotating function during the month of September. The presidency of the Council is held by each member in turn for one month following the English alphabetical order of the names of the member states. Here is the first speech made by Gabon on this occasion through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Michaël Moussa Adamo. It concerns the strengthening of the fight against the financing of armed and terrorist groups through the illicit trafficking of natural resources in Africa.
- I would like to thank the Director of the UNODC, Ms Ghada Fathi Waly, and the Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Union, Mr Bankole, for their inspiring presentations.
- The mapping of armed groups highlights the clear link between their deployment and the control of natural resources.
- The illicit exploitation of natural resources, whether biological or mineral, is a major source of funding for armed and terrorist groups, along with human trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and drug trafficking.
- It is undeniable that natural resources, mainly from the soil and subsoil, fuel the financing of conflicts and are one of the main issues at stake.
- The African continent is rich in natural resources. These resources, which are the pride of the continent, are unfortunately at the heart of a well-organised traffic that contributes to sowing terror in our towns and villages, where the populations are indiscriminately subjected to atrocities.
- A new illegal triangular trade links Africa, which exports raw materials, to countries which export arms and mercenaries, through countries offering parallel financial arrangements.
- Furthermore, armed and terrorist groups have progressively set up supply channels for multiform resources to better finance themselves. Underground economies of crime have thus developed in certain parts of state territories and cross-border areas.
- Conflicts are self-perpetuating through the predation of natural resources. Mining rents enable the purchase of arms and the recruitment of militiamen. A military and criminal economy is organised around wild species of fauna and flora, the coltan, gold and tin industries, and child labour. This parallel economy is run by military or security companies, buyers and brokers, clandestine exporters, with regional and international ramifications.
Dear colleagues,
- This Council must take up, beyond the present debate, this alarming situation affecting several regions of the African continent and provide urgent solutions commensurate with the bloodshed and distress resulting from the financing of armed and terrorist groups. The magnitude of the task requires a multidimensional response that combines security and development.
- It is essential to identify the grey areas of the criminal economy and its links with the official economy. The identification of the networks of companies, armies, transporters, arms dealers and traffickers, banks, illegal financial circuits and intermediaries of all kinds, including those with the respectability of two-sided businesses, is a requirement.
- In this regard, we reaffirm our support for the Kimberley Process and welcome the steps taken by African states and international organisations to regulate the mineral supply chain in order to promote transparency and establish a certification system that ensures that mineral resources are not used to finance armed groups.
- It is essential that such certification systems are inclusive, involving both producers and buyers.
- Furthermore, it is essential that the assets of armed groups and terrorist groups that roam Africa are pursued with the same rigour as international terrorist groups, with the full range of mechanisms applicable to the fight against the financing of terrorism, both at the level of the supply chains and towards the final buyers.
- The strengthening of cross-border security cooperation through joint regional operations, the exchange of financial information between countries, the fight against environmental crime, the freezing of assets, extra-judicial cooperation, the fight against the illicit circulation of SALW, the fight against money laundering, are all measures that need to be implemented in a coordinated manner at the regional and global level.
-
-
- Dear colleagues,
- It is fundamental to nurture a general understanding of the complex links between natural resources and violent conflicts by coordinating action programmes and the various peace-building actors, while at the same time creating a positive dynamic and overcoming political divisions, conflicts of interest or hidden agendas in order to build a consensus around norms and common actions in the area of conflict prevention and peace-building.
- Gabon calls on the Security Council to strengthen its mechanisms to crack down on networks that finance armed groups in Africa through the plundering of natural resources and to support, without reservation, the efforts and advocacy of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) at this critical time when the continent is prey to the proliferation of armed groups, the assaults of terrorist groups and other asymmetric threats to peace and stability.
- In conclusion, I would like to stress the urgent need for this Council to act with greater determination to dry up the funding of armed gangs that fuel instability and violence in many parts of the world.
- Natural resources must not be a curse for the countries that possess them.
Thank you.
