Since 2015, Cameroon’s National Agency for Financial Investigation (NAFI) has detected the movement of suspect funds in relation to the security situation in the Northwest, Southwest, and Far North regions of the country.
The illicit transfers amounting to 186 million US dollars were suspected to have been used to sponsor terrorism in the three regions of the country.
According to the just released 2020 report of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), during the year under review, the National Agency for Financial Investigation received 27 declarations of suspected financing of terrorism in connection with the security situation in the Northwest, Southwest, and Far North regions of the country.
The report notes that despite the reinforcement of the regulations, Cameroon is yet to free itself from financial delinquency, revealing that in 2019, NAFI recorded 29 declarations related to the financing of terrorism as against 53 reports in 2018.
There were 34 declarations of terrorism finance cases in 2017, 22 in 2016, and six in 2015 making a total of 171 declarations of suspected operations for a total of 93.73 billion FCFA (about $186 million).
The first national evaluation of money laundering intended for the financing of terrorism undertaken in 2018 by NAFI on instructions from the Minister of Finance indicated that “the risk of global financing of terrorism evaluated as high, the case of Cameroon.”
This evaluation takes into account the threats and terrorist activities registered in Cameroon, financial inflow detected, the sources and networks of terrorism financing both internally and externally.
The global threat of terrorism is evaluated as high and it is determined by the number of acts of terrorism recorded, the value of destruction inflicted, the number of internally displaced persons caused by acts of terrorism, the number of deaths and wounded caused by acts of terrorism and the level of sophistication of the arms used.
The level of the threat of terrorism also takes into consideration, the payment of ransom, the looting of financial institutions, the rustling of cattle, the amount of contraband goods recorded, the faking of products, traffic in drugs and arms, trade in agricultural and sea products and normal commercial activities.
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