Organized Crime Threatens Africa’s Economic Prospects

By Gregory Simpkins

In a period of intense currency volatility, gold has become a hedge for many including in the Diaspora, creating a 21st century gold rush worldwide. As reported by the Financial Times on August 21, organized crime groups from across sub-Saharan Africa to south-east Asia and the depths of the Amazon have gotten into illicit mining to feed one of the most lucrative trades of recent years.

Gold’s value is up threefold over the past decade, and more than a quarter since the start of this year alone, as investors seek safety from trade wars, inflation and geopolitical tensions. Its fungibility, which makes the precious metal easy to launder in trading and refining hubs like the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland, has turned mining into a magnet for everyone from Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s largest armed group, to the warring sides in Sudan’s ruinous civil conflict.

According to Interpol, transnational organized crime in Africa is a growing issue, involving far more than illegal mining. As a result, Interpol, under the European Union-funded ENACT Project has sought to catalogue and assess organized crime on the continent to drive a more strategic law enforcement response.

International criminal organizations continue to target Africa because of the significant illicit wealth that can be generated, stemming from criminal market opportunities that exploit various social and political vulnerabilities, state fragility, and limited policing capacities present on the continent.

International criminal organizations or networks operate everywhere in Africa via key facilitators and bring together a significant array of crime syndicates and street gangs that provide illicit goods and services. Crime syndicates remain highly connected across borders and are active in a number of illicit markets, notably drug trafficking, human trafficking and people smuggling, environmental crimes, financial crimes, counterfeited goods, works of art trafficking, stolen motor vehicles trafficking and maritime piracy.

In addition, there are enabling crimes such as cybercrime and the trade in small arms and light weapons that are supporting organized criminality throughout the continent, which overlap with all of the illicit markets noted in complex ways.

The Multifaceted Nature of Organized Crime in Africa

The key findings of Interpol’s analytical report: Overview of Serious and Organized Crime in Africa are as follows:

• Crime syndicates are a common trans-border criminal element on the continent, connected to the world’s illicit markets through close collaboration with transnational criminal networks of associates that target the continent specifically to maximize illicit gains.
• International organized crime elements from all over the world are implicated in a number of criminal markets throughout the continent, and these elements are suspected to be active in most countries, beyond the rates of detection. These elements often link local gangs to the international supply of illicit commodities.
• International criminal organizations active on the continent are able to exploit a range of socioeconomic dynamics to maximize illicitly gained profits. Their involvement in illicit markets is often met with only limited law enforcement response and sometimes even enabled by corruption.
• Terrorism and insurgency are constant and persistent elements of organized crime on the continent and are estimated to be growing both in scope and in impact and remain linked to a range of criminality.
• Environmental crimes on the continent are typically transnational in nature, linking countries together and the continent to the world. Asia is identified as the main destination for a number of illegal African wildlife trades. Criminal organizations involved in environmental crimes can consist of many different actors such as poachers/illegal loggers, non-state armed groups, mid-level traders, smugglers and individuals responsible for exportation, making detection more difficult, and are ready to use different methods and adapt their tactics to law enforcement efforts.
• The continent is suspected to be a consumption, production and transit hub for various illicit drugs enroute from Asia and South America to other global markets, noting Europe.
• Financial crimes are suspected to be on the rise on the continent and are frequently facilitated through cyber capacities. A range of frauds are routine throughout the continent, targeting financial institutions. Counterfeit currency and money laundering are also major organized crime elements.
• Trafficking in human beings and people smuggling are crime threats of significant concern to the entire continent, with nearly all countries qualifying as source, transit, and/or destination countries. All aspects of human trafficking, including sexual and labor exploitation as well as organ removal are occurring on the continent. Migrants moving illegally across the continent are vulnerable to human trafficking and high levels of violence. The Northern African region is a transit hub for migrants smuggled towards Europe.
• The capacity of organized crime groups on the continent to move significant quantities of small arms and light weapons across borders and between the regions indicate that some of the organized crime groups involved in small arms and light weapons trafficking have the capacity of connecting suppliers to buyers at national, regional and trans-regional levels, and have the necessary expertise to move firearms undetected. It also illustrates how porous many borders are on the continent. The significant number of trafficked weapons originating from looted governmental stockpiles and from UN peacekeeping missions present on the continent is a concern.
• Counterfeited pharmaceuticals as well as other goods are frequently trafficked on the continent, which poses a direct threat to public safety and security. This criminal market links many African countries with the rest of the world and counterfeit goods are often manufactured in one country and assembled in another, to be illegally transported through/to a third country. This type of criminality is often a convergence of contraband and financial crimes.
• Maritime piracy remains a threat for the continent, affecting both the security and economic development of the coast countries from the Gulf of Guinea, Gulf of Aden and Horn of Africa.
• The diversity of origins of foreign stolen motor vehicles (SMV) arriving on the continent with vehicles trafficked from Europe, North America and Asia confirms that African criminal groups involved in SMV trafficking are well connected to accomplices operating abroad. The capacity of organized crime groups on the continent to defeat modern car anti-theft equipment, such as GPS tracking devices, indicates that these groups are technologically proficient.
• The illicit traffic in cultural heritage is a thriving transnational crime affecting the continent. Fueled by a high demand and the degraded socio-economic and security conditions in some African regions. Criminal organizations, including terrorist groups, traffic a wide range of cultural objects mainly to Europe, North America and increasingly, the Gulf states.
• Cybercrimes and cyber-enabled crimes are growing issues that are increasingly affecting the continent. Crime syndicates and gangs on the continent are becoming more sophisticated and are capable of carrying out a range of new types of crimes through cyber capacities. The lack of investment and awareness exacerbated by limited capacities to prevent, detect, and investigate cybercrime incidents is further driving this criminality on the continent.

Crime Is a Global Phenomenon

Organized crime in Africa generates huge profits for all involved, and there are substantial illicit interregional financial flows and illicit profits moving throughout the continent and often heading offshore. Money laundering relating to all criminal market activities is occurring on a global scale.

The threat from organized crime in Africa is substantial, yet there is limited capacity amongst law enforcement to manage this complex issue at a national, regional and continental level.

Organized crime is going underreported and undetected, but various data sources reveal the following major activities and dynamics of groups and networks, which need to be addressed strategically, through building greater partnerships amongst all law enforcement agencies everywhere on the continent.

Africa has several countries with high levels of danger due to criminal activity, terrorism, and armed conflicts. According to the Global Peace Index 2024, some of the most dangerous countries in Africa include:

1. Sudan: Ranked among the least peaceful countries due to armed conflict and widespread violence
2. South Sudan: Faces persistent internal tensions and conflicts impacting peacefulness and security.
3. Democratic Republic of the Congo: Struggles with poverty, political unrest, and common crimes like murder, rape, and kidnapping.
4. Mali: Experiences escalating civil war and violence affecting communities.
5. Somalia: Has more than 20 percent of its population displaced due to conflict.

Of course, Africa isn’t the only region with high danger levels. Other regions have their share of risks:

• Middle East: Countries like Yemen and Syria face severe humanitarian crises and conflicts.
• Latin America: Nations like Venezuela have high crime indexes.

Certainly, there are criminal accomplices for African crime networks in North America, Europe and Asia.

Just when African countries are improving their economic outlooks and coalescing around regional and continental trade mechanisms, crime remains an obstacle to economic prospects. Investors are being urged to consider African markets for their untapped potential, but hopefully solutions can be identified and implemented to safeguard these investments and ensure a prosperous future for African nations and their people.

Gregory Simpkins, a longtime specialist in African policy development, is the Principal of 21st Century Solutions. He consults with organizations on African policy issues generally, especially in relating to the U.S. Government. He further acts as a consultant to the African Merchants Association, where he advises the Association in its efforts to stimulate an increase in trade between several hundred African Diaspora small and medium enterprises and their African partners.