AFRICA'S BID TO CLOSE CHANNELS FINANCING TERRORISM ACTS - PM

SIKHUPHE - African countries, including Eswatini, aim to cut sources and channels used to finance terrorism acts in the continent.

This, according to the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Dlamini, is one of the resolutions which were taken by African countries during the African Union (AU) Summit, which was held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea from May 27-18, 2022. The PM said this during a press conference where he delivered a report about the summit, where he had represented His Majesty King Mswati III. The press conference was held at the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) boardroom at King Mswati III International Airport yesterday.

Migration

He said the summit was preceded by a specialised technical committee on migration, refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons ministers meeting between May 23 and 24, 2022.
He said the extraordinary session of the executive council on May 25, 2022 was attended by part of his delegation. The premier said issues which were considered during the assembly included humanitarian challenges, hopes and aspirations in Africa, declaration on humanitarian summit and pledging conference and presentation of the reports of the chairperson of the commission.

He said other items on the agenda included presentation of outcome of the meeting of chiefs of intelligence and security services in Africa, unconstitutional changes of government- consolidated actions to strengthen constitutionalism and democracy, together with consideration and adoption of the Malabo Declaration and the Declaration on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Changes of Government. The PM said the main focus of the humanitarian summit was the creation of the humanitarian fund as well as operationalisation of the AU Humanitarian Agency, where the African States united in the humanitarian cause.

When asked how much was raised during the creation of the fund, he said between USD15 million (E232.65 million) and USD20 million (E310.20 million) was raised in cash. However, he mentioned that most countries, including Eswatini were not specific on how much they would pledge, pending discussions at government level, while others made pledges. Thereafter, he said the summit adopted the Malabo Declaration and pledged to continuously resource mobilise for the humanitarian cause. He said the main focus of the terrorism and unconstitutional change of governments in Africa was strengthening the AU frameworks and early warning systems for counter terrorism and unconstitutional change of governments in the continent. He said African countries united in condemning terrorism and unconstitutional change of governments and pledged to address the scourge at infancy. According to the PM, it was noted that acts of terrorism and unconstitutional change of governments affect socio-economic development and sets Africa backwards.

Terrorism

He said some of the factors which exacerbate terrorism in the continent included external funding and the misuse of social media platforms to promote acts of terrorism. Therefore, he said the summit adopted the Declaration on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Governments in Africa which places a responsibility on all African States to act collectively in countering terrorism and unconstitutional change of government. Once more, the premier said they would also look into organisations which collect money under the pretext that they wanted to assist people who were affected maybe during disasters, unrests or pandemic, but at the end, used it to fund terrorism acts.

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