The news is: the Daesh (or DAECH), Arabic acronym for ISIL (translated means Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), is still super-rich, indeed it is even more so because it is taking possession of the gigantic treasures of gold mines of which Africa is very rich. And not only gold but also diamonds and precious materials that industries around the world are bulimically greedy for. In fact, there are many criminal gangs of DAESH and in particular those of theMaghrebi al-Qaeda, of the AQM and WOMAN, which for years, organized and well armed, have attacked, robbed, exploited, smuggled and then resold African gold and other treasures.
The gigantic loots are entrusted to European, North African, Turkish, Russian, American, and above all Arab intermediaries (multi-decade financiers of DAESH) and transit to Dubai where they are refined and then leave for markets around the world and, recently, with growing supplies to India and China. Few talk and write about it because gigantic interests of even state institutions, armies, intelligence services, private security companies and, obviously, arms traffickers are involved. Above all, some gold, diamond and finance multinationals who, in words, complain of enormous damage to their mines due to terrorism, in fact instead, have done and do us good business. Because it is mainly the mines of small companies and local communities that are closing down.
a boon forcompany-DAESH because the current mining of Africa's gold, diamonds and other precious metals, is enormously below its potential and promises future box office records. Currently they comeor from Africa 821 tons per year of the worldwide total of 3.500. Now it's a must to do some accounting, because, as very authoritative newspapers wrote recently, Islamist terrorism he is once again very powerful, rich, protected. And very very close to Europe. The danger comes from the fact that terrorist gangs have moved from the Middle East to North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the continent.
MORE THAN SIX BILLION DOLLARS…
In the years of Islamist terrorism, the correspondents of the major newspapers from all over the world had reported that ISIS had and has a treasure trove of over 6 billion dollars. We can now reveal that it is many billions more since they come from "paths" that never stopped and from new ones like gold. DAESH, since the invasions of western countries in the Middle East began (2003) has been collecting and collecting very probably every year, a digit between 2 and 4 billion dollars each year. The assets are: oil traffic, $4,4 million a day (down due to the loss of some sites); natural gas $1,4 million per day, levies and taxes $1 million per day (rising sharply); captured military arsenals and indirect supplies of Arab and Western financiers worth 3 billion a year.
HUGE TREASURES LUMP SUM
The many kidnappings that have occurred since 2003 they were settled with gigantic ransoms. The robbery of banks, companies, shops in dozens of cities were other assets difficult to quantify but the only one taking of Mossoul it yielded, thanks to the complete takeover of the central bank of Iraq (it was headquartered in Mossoul) with its enormous reserves and current accounts, 3.400 million dollars. As for the 5-6 billion dollar value of the stolen art in Syria, Iraq and Libya, is increasing because millions of small objects have invaded Google and the dark web. And then because the priceless treasures, buried in European, Arab and Asian underground coffers, become more and more precious over the years. Of those 5-6 billion, it seems that a part has been stolen by armies and militia and by local gangs. The result is a certain difficulty in establishing how much the immense art heritage owned or marketed by Islamist criminals is really worth today. Then there is to consider the recent contribution of sophisticated weapons from Trump to the countries of the Persian Gulf, weapons that have been found in the possession of terrorists in Africa and which are obviously worth enormous sums.
HOW TO GET THE BEST OF AFRICAN GOLD
It is a slow but inexorable and little opposed "program" of massacres of thousands and thousands of poor miners, of corruption and blackmail, which began at least since 2017. And which involves numerous countries starting even from the very poor Niger which also hides large quantities of gold in the subsoil and in the water of its rivers, among other things, superior quality gold, of 22 Karats . In addition to imposing heavy taxes on local traders and artisans (as happened in Syria and Iraq), the Islamists have been attacking the mines for years, extracting millions and millions of dollars. Only Bourkina, for example, which has 14 gold mines, has recorded 2015 assaults on the mines since 283. The pandemic? He never held back the gangs.
WHAT'S BEHIND
The endemic corruption of local governments, the gigantic businesses of Western multinationals which often deal with Islamist criminals to ensure relative neutrality towards their activities of exploitation of African gold, but above all the disinterest on the part of Western countries which, after having unleashed the wars in Iraq, Syria and Libya have not wanted or been able to block the "emigration" routes of old and new followers of terrorism towards the Maghreb and all of Africa. With one exception, France, who saved the cities of these countries from the massive onslaught of Islamist criminals; in Mali, for example, he prevented AQMI and MUJAO from taking over the capital Bamako and drove out their katibas (their brigades) from the northern cities. The Barkane operation with 4 thousand soldiers special forces has dispersed -but not beaten- the large groupings of terrorists who, scattered in a thousand financially autonomous, very well armed rivulets, then systematically dedicated themselves to plundering, killing, raping the inhabitants, destroying hundreds of villages in a growing number of African states.
SMALL COMPANY GOLD MINES CLOSE
Islamist terrorists they started from a gigantic area with 5 countries (Mauritania, Mali, Bourkina, Niger and Tchad) and 93 million inhabitants, pulverizing the often poorly paid and poorly armed local armies. And with an impressive progression because of the 283 assaults that took place, as we have written, in Bourkina well half took place in the first half of 2019. And if the multinationals of gold, diamonds and "precious" raw materials know how to defend themselves with private militias and underground operations support for terrorists, mines owned locally or by small foreign companies close since they can no longer bear the stratospheric costs of security and "neutrality". Miners are often forced to live in sub-human conditions. With the arrival of the pandemic, the price of gold has risen all over the world but for the miners it has fallen due to the widespread smuggling with very tough competition.
THE DAMAGE OF MINES CLOSURES
The expansion of terrorist gangs towards countries well beyond Bourkina, Mali, Niger, Tschad and Mauritania, and which have very rich and little-exploited mines, has accelerated the now daily incursions, with hundreds of deaths as happened, for example, recently in the mine south of Kamituga (People's Republic of the Congo), where 50 young smuggling miners drowned in a torrent of mud from the torrential rains that flooded the shafts. And more and more often the mines are abandoned by the "regular" companies because there are no more transport companies for the miners, creating a disastrous economic situation. The Canadian Traffic light the gold site in Congo - in which it has invested 212 million dollars to produce 226.000 ounces of gold annually - is expected to reopen later this year after the temporary closure which will however have repercussions on the country's production , until then in rapid expansion (20% per annum). This closure follows that of the reservoir Youga, attacked by local people after the murder of a prospector by a security agent. Production stood at 50,3 tonnes, down 2,3%. And promises of a resumption of exploitation of gold sites are rare and in any case hampered by the pandemic. “This year we expect a recovery with the entry into production of the Bomboré and Sanbrado fields, owned by the Canadian Orezone and Australian West African Resources ” Toussaint Bamouni, executive director of the Burkina Faso Chamber of Mines recently told Jeune Afrique . “But the pandemic will likely have a lasting effect on asset allocation. It will also strengthen the value of gold as a strategic asset,” noted the World Gold Council in July, a few weeks before gold hit, in August the highest price ever recorded: $2.048.
