Security investigating tones of smuggled gold awaiting exchange for ammunition
By our correspondent
By our correspondent .
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Uganda security in laison with it’s DR Congo counterparts are investigating allegations of a secretive entry of Gold toned and other precious minerals in the region.
It’s alleged that about two tones of Gold from armed groups in the East, Central, West and Sahel region have crossed borders to be exchanged for ammunition to foster armed conflicts in the regions.
A highly placed security personnel related to Uganda’s mineral police department, said that the trade is being orchestrated by rebel groups and armed gangs who operate in ungovernable areas in the region.
Primarily investigations indicate that armed groups in DR Congo are trading in gold and other precious minerals for war materials and the exchanged minerals later end up in the Arabian countries.
It’s also alleged that one of the major funders of this illegal trade is a Saudi Arabian cartel headed by one Naim Khayati who is known to have a vast connection into arms movement in the region.
” With armed trade embargoes hovering in the region rebel groups use minerals from illegal mining and smuggled to sustain their armed conflict” said a senior security officer.
Uganda is a regional hub for illicit gold smuggled from elsewhere in East Africa, for onward export to gold trade hubs such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Kampala and Entebbe attract significant volumes of gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, and smaller flows from Kenya.
As a result of this gold smuggling, Uganda’s gold exports have grown exponentially since the 1990s and are now the highest in the region. Recent GI-TOC research into illicit gold in Uganda has used a variety of measures, from price monitoring, import and export data and field interviews, to help shed light on the hidden world of the illicit gold trade.
But Uganda’s domestic production is dwarfed by the amount of gold smuggled into the country from its neighbours, primarily the DRC and South Sudan.
As one gold dealer explained, ‘Most of the gold we get here [in Uganda] is in transit’, and almost 95% of it is illicit
Insecurity in both eastern DRC and in South Sudan also makes Uganda an attractive destination for smuggled gold from those countries.
The latest United Nations report assessing the gold smuggling racket points out that this money is being used as a source of financing for the wars raging in the eastern DR Congo.
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