Uganda: Terrorists Devise New Tactics
Source: ALLAFRICA
Kampala — TERRORIST groups have devised new tricks and are now using legitimate businesses to fund their activities.
The details emerged yesterday as Brig. James Mugira, the chief of military intelligence, addressed delegates attending the five-day counter terrorism capacity building workshop at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
Terrorist groups, he said, are now using legitimate businesses such as hotels, pubs, taxi operators and trade-linked schemes to launder money thus funding their activities and posing a bigger challenge to authorities.
"Since it is becoming difficult for terrorists to raise funds from charities, they have resorted to money laundering," he disclosed.
Mugira noted that individual terror groups in the network had taken to illicit trade in narcotics, minerals, kidnapping, human trafficking and counterfeiting in order to become financially independent.
About 50 African civilian and top military officers from eastern and southern African countries are attending the workshop aimed at charting a way to combat funding for terrorism.
Clifford Bernath, the US embassy deputy head of mission, noted that technological advancement had increased the pace at which money is transferred globally, thus complicating matters.
This, he said, called for increased co-operation between countries.
"Combating global crime is not the mandate of a single country. We need to work together," Bernath advised.
He said the presence of the al-Qaeda, a terror group and its networks in the region, poses a challenge to security and tracing their money remains a problem.
Kampala — TERRORIST groups have devised new tricks and are now using legitimate businesses to fund their activities.
The details emerged yesterday as Brig. James Mugira, the chief of military intelligence, addressed delegates attending the five-day counter terrorism capacity building workshop at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
Terrorist groups, he said, are now using legitimate businesses such as hotels, pubs, taxi operators and trade-linked schemes to launder money thus funding their activities and posing a bigger challenge to authorities.
"Since it is becoming difficult for terrorists to raise funds from charities, they have resorted to money laundering," he disclosed.
Mugira noted that individual terror groups in the network had taken to illicit trade in narcotics, minerals, kidnapping, human trafficking and counterfeiting in order to become financially independent.
About 50 African civilian and top military officers from eastern and southern African countries are attending the workshop aimed at charting a way to combat funding for terrorism.
Clifford Bernath, the US embassy deputy head of mission, noted that technological advancement had increased the pace at which money is transferred globally, thus complicating matters.
This, he said, called for increased co-operation between countries.
"Combating global crime is not the mandate of a single country. We need to work together," Bernath advised.
He said the presence of the al-Qaeda, a terror group and its networks in the region, poses a challenge to security and tracing their money remains a problem.
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