Investment
Sub-Saharan Africa Named Riskiest Investment Region due to Violence By Kaamil Ahmed
Fighters from a local armed groups patrol, aiming to lower the number of weapons in circulation in and around the city of Menaka, situated between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Photograph: Souleymane Ag Anara/AFP/Getty
MILITANT VIOLENCE AND ABUSES by security forces have made sub-Saharan Africa the riskiest region in the world for business and investors, a new report says. Seven of the world’s 10 highest-risk countries for militant violence are in the region with significant deteriorations in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the annual Terrorism Intensity Index (www.maplecroft. com/insights/analysis/terrorism-7-of-10-highest-riskcountries-now-in-africa--index) released on recently by
risk consultants Verisk Maplecroft. Much of the concern was over Boko Haram’s attacks in West Africa as well as other militias in the central African Sahel, with a warning that conflict could continue to spread regionally.
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The report highlights risks for companies and staff at sites and transport routes, and warns that government forces also pose a risk. Alexandre Raymakers, Verisk Maplecroft’s senior Africa analyst, said businesses wanted to avoid “being associated with a government that provides security but the security forces commit human rights violations”. “Human rights violations and atrocities committed by security forces are drivers for recruitment by extremist groups,” he said. “More and more extremist violent organisations will use that narrative [to recruit].” The Sahel has been the target of a coordinated anti-militant drive by regional governments, supported by France, but there has been a surge
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