|
|
Sanctions:
None applicable
____________________________________________________
Offshore Jurisdiction Blacklists:
Information unavailable.
____________________________________________________
US State Department Money Laundering Report - 2011:
Niger is not a regional financial center, and its banking sector is
rudimentary. It is a member of the Central Bank of West African
States (BCEAO), and shares its central bank and currency with
other countries in the region. High transaction costs deter
businesses from placing large amounts of cash in the banking
system. Most economic activity takes place in the informal
financial sector.
Money laundering and financial crimes are commonplace in Niger.
The country is primarily a transit country for funds related to the
trafficking of narcotics and other forms of contraband. Niger is
one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world and
is not a significant source of criminal proceeds. Since 2008,
kidnappings for ransom have become a preferred fundraising
method for terrorist groups.
DO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ENGAGE IN CURRENCY
TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKING THAT INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF US
CURRENCY; CURRENCY DERIVED FROM ILLEGAL SALES IN
THE U.S.; OR THAT OTHERWISE SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE
U.S.: NO
CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING:
“All serious crimes” approach or “list” approach to predicate
crimes: All serious crimes
Legal persons covered: criminally: YES civilly: NO
CRIMINALIZATION OF TERRORIST FINANCING:
Ability to freeze terrorist assets without delay: YES
UN lists of designated terrorists or terrorist entities distributed to
financial institutions: YES
(Please refer to the Department of State’s Country Reports on
Terrorism, which can be found here: http://www.state.
gov/s/ct/rls/crt/)
KNOW-YOUR-CUSTOMER RULES:
Covered entities: Public Treasury and State Savings Deposit
institutions; BCEAO; banks, microfinance institutions, and money
exchanges; insurance companies and brokers; securities
exchanges or brokers; post office; mutual funds and fixed capital
investment companies; lawyers, asset or fund custodians, and
management and intermediation firms; business brokers for
financial entities, auditors, and real estate agents; high-value
goods dealers; fund carriers; owners or managers of casinos;
travel agencies; and, NGOs
Enhanced due diligence procedures for PEPs: Foreign: YES
Domestic: YES
SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:
Covered entities: Public Treasury and State Savings Deposit
institutions; BCEAO; banks, microfinance institutions, and money
exchanges; insurance companies and brokers; securities
exchanges or brokers; post office; mutual funds and fixed capital
investment companies; lawyers, asset or fund custodians, and
management and intermediation firms; business brokers for
financial entities, auditors, and real estate agents; high-value
goods dealers; fund carriers; owners or managers of casinos;
travel agencies; and, NGOs
Number of STRs received and time frame: Two in 2009 and one
in 2010
Number of CTRs received and time frame: None
MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINAL
PROSECUTIONS/CONVICTIONS:
Prosecutions: Two in 2007
Convictions: One in 2008
Assets forfeited: criminally: Not available civilly: Not available
RECORDS EXCHANGE MECHANISM:
With U.S.: NO
With other governments/jurisdictions: YES
Niger is a member of the Intergovernmental Action Group against
Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), a Financial Action
Task Force (FATF)-style regional body. Its most recent mutual
evaluation can be found at: http://www.giaba.org/
ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND
COMMENTS:
Niger’s money laundering and terrorist financing laws are not in
full compliance with international standards. Niger participates in
international law enforcement cooperation, mutual legal
assistance, and asset sharing groups within the region, but does
not have bilateral arrangements with the United States. On
January 21, 2010, Niger enacted Law # 2010-05 on Terror
Financing. This law sets in place a legal framework addressing
cross-border transportation of currency as well as charities and
nonprofit organizations.
The National Center for the Treatment of Financial Information
(CENTIF), Niger’s FIU, has accomplished little since it was
established in 2004. Only two of the eight reports of suspicious
activities received since CENTIF’s creation were judged
sufficiently serious to merit legal action, leading to one conviction.
The CENTIF has also suffered setbacks: the office and records of
an ongoing investigation were destroyed by a fire; and it has been
forced to move locations twice. CENTIF’s president has
emphasized the organization’s lack of capacity and funding.
Although addressed in the AML/CFT laws, customer due diligence
procedures for designated non-financial businesses and
professions have not been implemented.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Narcotics Report 2011:
Drug production and use are not high-priority problems in Niger,
though trafficking and use appear to be increasing. According to
the head of the Drug Enforcement Coordination Center (CCLAD),
population growth and increasing poverty continue to have dire
social consequences that often result in drug abuse. Low prices
for narcotics, especially cannabis and prescription medications,
are also contributing to a gradual increase in consumption and to
narcotics-related health problems.
Drug-trafficking routes run from Mauritania through Mali and cross
northern Niger along the Algerian and Libyan borders, continuing
toward North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The drugs
originate mainly from South America. Instability and wider
availability of arms resulting from the Libyan conflict may have
expanded traffickers’ capacity to move drugs through these
routes. Only a very small amount of cannabis is grown in Niger,
and to date there is no evidence of synthetic drug production
facilities.
Niger is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the UN
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and to the UN
Convention against Corruption. As a matter of government policy,
the Government of Niger does not encourage or facilitate illicit
production or distribution of narcotics and psychotropic
substances, nor does it encourage or facilitate the laundering of
proceeds from illegal drug transactions.
Cannabis and diverted prescription medications are readily and
cheaply available in Niger. They are generally trafficked into Niger
from Nigeria and Benin on heavy transport trucks, in the baggage
of people traveling north into Niger, and on camels using
traditional trade routes. Enough marijuana to make a cigarette or
two is available for as little as 100 to 200 CFA (20-40 cents) and
can be purchased on the periphery of many markets throughout
Niger, but especially in Niamey and other urban areas. Diazepam,
a depressant commonly marketed as Valium, is the prescription
medication of choice for abuse and can be purchased on the
street for as little as 25 to 50 CFA (five-10 cents) per pill. Drug
use can be recreational or work-related, for work involving intense
effort or extended drudgery. Dealers and users are generally 15
to 40 years old, and include members of affluent families. The
CCLAD has visited schools in and outside Niamey to raise drug
abuse awareness among students.
The CCLAD operates nationwide and is headed by a National
Police Commissioner appointed in October 2010. The CCLAD is
the focal point for government and private organizations that
combat drugs and is tasked with compiling statistics, developing
intelligence, and pursuing drug users and distributers. The
CCLAD receives support from the French government and uses
the French national public health laboratory to analyze recovered
drugs. Within the Ministry of Justice, the Director of Criminal
Affairs and Pardons heads the National Coordinating Commission
for the Fight against Drugs, which organizes outreach and
educational programs. The CCLAD headquarters office in Niamey
includes 30 police officers, with plans for the addition of six
National Guardsmen. The CCLAD has branches in Agadez
(covering Agadez and Tahoua regions) and in Zinder (covering
Diffa, Maradi, and Zinder regions). The center in Niamey also
covers the regions of Dosso and Tillabery. The CCLAD is under-
equipped and understaffed, and can offer no incentives to attract
other security agents to join its ranks. Since its creation in 1992,
the CCLAD has not been able to establish a detoxification or
rehabilitation center for drug patients. The CCLAD intends to
strengthen its branches in Agadez and Zinder by the end of 2012.
It also intends to provide drug enforcement training for all security
forces. The CCLAD plans to draft proposals for their upcoming
activities and request assistance from partner countries.
During the first six months of 2011, the CCLAD-Niamey and other
security forces arrested 242 people (including 97 sentenced to
prison terms) and seized 655.4 kilograms of cannabis and
182,020 Diazepam (D5) pills. On June 7, drug enforcement
officers at the Port of Cotonou, Benin, seized a container in transit
to Niger in which they found 405 kilograms of cocaine shipped
from Brazil. On June 10, the Togolese drug enforcement agency
seized 97 kilograms of cocaine in a container registered as
carrying soybean oil en route to Niger. On September 3, near
Dirkou, in Agadez region, the CCLAD with support from other
security forces apprehended traffickers aboard three vehicles
carrying a total of at least 3,200 kilograms of cannabis resin with
an illicit market value of 13 billion CFA ($27.5 million). The CCLAD
escorted the vehicles and their contents to headquarters in
Niamey. On November 3, near Madama, in Agadez region,
security forces clashed with suspected drug traffickers aboard
four vehicles. The suspects managed to escape, leaving one
government soldier injured. The CCLAD reports that it is
investigating several cases involving politicians.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2011
(introduction):
(Tier 2 Watch List)
Niger is a source, transit, and destination country for children and
women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Caste-based
slavery practices continue primarily in the northern part of the
country. Nigerien children are subjected to forced begging within
the country, as well as in Mali and Nigeria, by religious instructors
known as marabouts. They also are subjected to domestic
servitude, prostitution, and forced labor in gold mines, agriculture,
and stone quarries within the country. Nigerien children, primarily
girls, also are subjected to prostitution along the border with
Nigeria, particularly along the main highway in the towns of Birni N’
Konni and Zinder. Nigerien girls reportedly entered into
“marriages” with citizens of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United
Arab Emirates, whereby they were forced into domestic servitude
upon arrival in these countries. In the Tahoua region of Niger,
girls born into slavery were reportedly forced to marry men who
bought them and subsequently subjected them to forced labor
and sexual servitude. Niger is a transit country for women and
children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana,
Mali, Nigeria, and Togo migrating en route to Algeria, Libya, and
Western Europe; some may be subjected to forced labor in Niger
as domestic servants, mechanics and welders, or laborers in
mines and on farms. To a lesser extent, Nigerien women and
children are recruited from Niger and transported to Nigeria,
North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for domestic servitude
and sex trafficking.
The Government of Niger does not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making
significant efforts to do so. Despite these efforts, the government
did not demonstrate overall increased efforts to address human
trafficking over the previous year; therefore Niger is placed on
Tier 2 Watch List for a second consecutive year. The government
acknowledges that trafficking, including slavery, is a problem in
the country. The country was led by a transition government
during the reporting period; this regime, appointed following the
February 2010 coup, lacked a budget and constitutional authority
for much of the year. In December 2010, the transitional
government enacted the country’s first specific law to address
trafficking; however, the government’s few efforts to investigate
and prosecute trafficking offenses during the year came only after
receiving complaints from NGOs, and efforts to prosecute cases
of traditional slavery and to provide assistance to victims
remained weak.
For full report click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Terrorism Report 2010
Overview: Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) continued to
exploit ungoverned space in Nigerien territory. It took advantage
of porous borders and the huge expanse of Niger not under
government control to conduct contraband smuggling and
kidnappings. Niger was committed to fighting AQIM and worked
with other regional partners and organizations to support its
counterterrorism efforts, notably the General Staff Joint
Operations Committee (CEMOC), which also included Algeria,
Mali, and Mauritania.
2010 Terrorist Incidents: Niger continued to be a victim of AQIM
attacks, including kidnappings and anti-government operations:
* In January, two local residents reported that two vehicles
allegedly carrying AQIM-affiliated personnel were spotted in
northwestern Niger looking for Westerners to kidnap. A Nigerien
patrol sent to the area was attacked and the perpetrators fled
towards the Mali-Niger border. Hunted by a Nigerien security
force, 15 AQIM members were eventually killed, along with four
Nigerien soldiers.
* On March 8, in what was believed to be a revenge attack for the
January clash, AQIM attacked a Nigerien armed forces forward-
operating post with a vehicle bomb, mortars, heavy machine guns,
and small arms. Five Nigerien soldiers died in the attack.
* On April 22, a French humanitarian worker, Michel Germaneau,
was kidnapped in northern Niger, taken across the border into
Mali, and murdered three months later in apparent retaliation for
French support of Mauritanian counterterrorism operations in
northern Mali.
* On September 16, five French nationals, one Togolese, and one
Malagasy, all sub-contracted employees of the French uranium
mining firm Areva, were kidnapped in Arlit. Nigerien forces
followed the tire tracks to the border with Mali. AQIM claimed
responsibility for the kidnappings.
Countering Terrorist Finance: In January, Niger passed a law
implementing the International Convention on the Suppression of
the Financing of Terrorism. In July, Niger created the National
Coordinating Committee on the Fight against Money Laundering
and Terrorist Financing. Niger is a member of the Inter-
Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West
Africa, a Financial Action Task Force-style regional body.
Regional and International Cooperation: Niger cooperated with U.
S. counterterrorism efforts and is a Trans-Sahara
Counterterrorism Partnership country. Over the past year, Niger
has entered into a partnership to establish and conduct
operations with Mali, Algeria, and Mauritania out of the CEMOC
center in Tamanrasset, Algeria. In September, after the
kidnapping in Arlit, Niger agreed to permit French forces to
conduct surveillance operations in Niamey.
____________________________________________________
Links:
Worldwide AML Legislation (International Bar Association)
None applicable
____________________________________________________
Offshore Jurisdiction Blacklists:
Information unavailable.
____________________________________________________
US State Department Money Laundering Report - 2011:
Niger is not a regional financial center, and its banking sector is
rudimentary. It is a member of the Central Bank of West African
States (BCEAO), and shares its central bank and currency with
other countries in the region. High transaction costs deter
businesses from placing large amounts of cash in the banking
system. Most economic activity takes place in the informal
financial sector.
Money laundering and financial crimes are commonplace in Niger.
The country is primarily a transit country for funds related to the
trafficking of narcotics and other forms of contraband. Niger is
one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world and
is not a significant source of criminal proceeds. Since 2008,
kidnappings for ransom have become a preferred fundraising
method for terrorist groups.
DO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ENGAGE IN CURRENCY
TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKING THAT INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF US
CURRENCY; CURRENCY DERIVED FROM ILLEGAL SALES IN
THE U.S.; OR THAT OTHERWISE SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE
U.S.: NO
CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING:
“All serious crimes” approach or “list” approach to predicate
crimes: All serious crimes
Legal persons covered: criminally: YES civilly: NO
CRIMINALIZATION OF TERRORIST FINANCING:
Ability to freeze terrorist assets without delay: YES
UN lists of designated terrorists or terrorist entities distributed to
financial institutions: YES
(Please refer to the Department of State’s Country Reports on
Terrorism, which can be found here: http://www.state.
gov/s/ct/rls/crt/)
KNOW-YOUR-CUSTOMER RULES:
Covered entities: Public Treasury and State Savings Deposit
institutions; BCEAO; banks, microfinance institutions, and money
exchanges; insurance companies and brokers; securities
exchanges or brokers; post office; mutual funds and fixed capital
investment companies; lawyers, asset or fund custodians, and
management and intermediation firms; business brokers for
financial entities, auditors, and real estate agents; high-value
goods dealers; fund carriers; owners or managers of casinos;
travel agencies; and, NGOs
Enhanced due diligence procedures for PEPs: Foreign: YES
Domestic: YES
SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:
Covered entities: Public Treasury and State Savings Deposit
institutions; BCEAO; banks, microfinance institutions, and money
exchanges; insurance companies and brokers; securities
exchanges or brokers; post office; mutual funds and fixed capital
investment companies; lawyers, asset or fund custodians, and
management and intermediation firms; business brokers for
financial entities, auditors, and real estate agents; high-value
goods dealers; fund carriers; owners or managers of casinos;
travel agencies; and, NGOs
Number of STRs received and time frame: Two in 2009 and one
in 2010
Number of CTRs received and time frame: None
MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINAL
PROSECUTIONS/CONVICTIONS:
Prosecutions: Two in 2007
Convictions: One in 2008
Assets forfeited: criminally: Not available civilly: Not available
RECORDS EXCHANGE MECHANISM:
With U.S.: NO
With other governments/jurisdictions: YES
Niger is a member of the Intergovernmental Action Group against
Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), a Financial Action
Task Force (FATF)-style regional body. Its most recent mutual
evaluation can be found at: http://www.giaba.org/
ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND
COMMENTS:
Niger’s money laundering and terrorist financing laws are not in
full compliance with international standards. Niger participates in
international law enforcement cooperation, mutual legal
assistance, and asset sharing groups within the region, but does
not have bilateral arrangements with the United States. On
January 21, 2010, Niger enacted Law # 2010-05 on Terror
Financing. This law sets in place a legal framework addressing
cross-border transportation of currency as well as charities and
nonprofit organizations.
The National Center for the Treatment of Financial Information
(CENTIF), Niger’s FIU, has accomplished little since it was
established in 2004. Only two of the eight reports of suspicious
activities received since CENTIF’s creation were judged
sufficiently serious to merit legal action, leading to one conviction.
The CENTIF has also suffered setbacks: the office and records of
an ongoing investigation were destroyed by a fire; and it has been
forced to move locations twice. CENTIF’s president has
emphasized the organization’s lack of capacity and funding.
Although addressed in the AML/CFT laws, customer due diligence
procedures for designated non-financial businesses and
professions have not been implemented.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Narcotics Report 2011:
Drug production and use are not high-priority problems in Niger,
though trafficking and use appear to be increasing. According to
the head of the Drug Enforcement Coordination Center (CCLAD),
population growth and increasing poverty continue to have dire
social consequences that often result in drug abuse. Low prices
for narcotics, especially cannabis and prescription medications,
are also contributing to a gradual increase in consumption and to
narcotics-related health problems.
Drug-trafficking routes run from Mauritania through Mali and cross
northern Niger along the Algerian and Libyan borders, continuing
toward North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The drugs
originate mainly from South America. Instability and wider
availability of arms resulting from the Libyan conflict may have
expanded traffickers’ capacity to move drugs through these
routes. Only a very small amount of cannabis is grown in Niger,
and to date there is no evidence of synthetic drug production
facilities.
Niger is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the UN
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and to the UN
Convention against Corruption. As a matter of government policy,
the Government of Niger does not encourage or facilitate illicit
production or distribution of narcotics and psychotropic
substances, nor does it encourage or facilitate the laundering of
proceeds from illegal drug transactions.
Cannabis and diverted prescription medications are readily and
cheaply available in Niger. They are generally trafficked into Niger
from Nigeria and Benin on heavy transport trucks, in the baggage
of people traveling north into Niger, and on camels using
traditional trade routes. Enough marijuana to make a cigarette or
two is available for as little as 100 to 200 CFA (20-40 cents) and
can be purchased on the periphery of many markets throughout
Niger, but especially in Niamey and other urban areas. Diazepam,
a depressant commonly marketed as Valium, is the prescription
medication of choice for abuse and can be purchased on the
street for as little as 25 to 50 CFA (five-10 cents) per pill. Drug
use can be recreational or work-related, for work involving intense
effort or extended drudgery. Dealers and users are generally 15
to 40 years old, and include members of affluent families. The
CCLAD has visited schools in and outside Niamey to raise drug
abuse awareness among students.
The CCLAD operates nationwide and is headed by a National
Police Commissioner appointed in October 2010. The CCLAD is
the focal point for government and private organizations that
combat drugs and is tasked with compiling statistics, developing
intelligence, and pursuing drug users and distributers. The
CCLAD receives support from the French government and uses
the French national public health laboratory to analyze recovered
drugs. Within the Ministry of Justice, the Director of Criminal
Affairs and Pardons heads the National Coordinating Commission
for the Fight against Drugs, which organizes outreach and
educational programs. The CCLAD headquarters office in Niamey
includes 30 police officers, with plans for the addition of six
National Guardsmen. The CCLAD has branches in Agadez
(covering Agadez and Tahoua regions) and in Zinder (covering
Diffa, Maradi, and Zinder regions). The center in Niamey also
covers the regions of Dosso and Tillabery. The CCLAD is under-
equipped and understaffed, and can offer no incentives to attract
other security agents to join its ranks. Since its creation in 1992,
the CCLAD has not been able to establish a detoxification or
rehabilitation center for drug patients. The CCLAD intends to
strengthen its branches in Agadez and Zinder by the end of 2012.
It also intends to provide drug enforcement training for all security
forces. The CCLAD plans to draft proposals for their upcoming
activities and request assistance from partner countries.
During the first six months of 2011, the CCLAD-Niamey and other
security forces arrested 242 people (including 97 sentenced to
prison terms) and seized 655.4 kilograms of cannabis and
182,020 Diazepam (D5) pills. On June 7, drug enforcement
officers at the Port of Cotonou, Benin, seized a container in transit
to Niger in which they found 405 kilograms of cocaine shipped
from Brazil. On June 10, the Togolese drug enforcement agency
seized 97 kilograms of cocaine in a container registered as
carrying soybean oil en route to Niger. On September 3, near
Dirkou, in Agadez region, the CCLAD with support from other
security forces apprehended traffickers aboard three vehicles
carrying a total of at least 3,200 kilograms of cannabis resin with
an illicit market value of 13 billion CFA ($27.5 million). The CCLAD
escorted the vehicles and their contents to headquarters in
Niamey. On November 3, near Madama, in Agadez region,
security forces clashed with suspected drug traffickers aboard
four vehicles. The suspects managed to escape, leaving one
government soldier injured. The CCLAD reports that it is
investigating several cases involving politicians.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2011
(introduction):
(Tier 2 Watch List)
Niger is a source, transit, and destination country for children and
women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Caste-based
slavery practices continue primarily in the northern part of the
country. Nigerien children are subjected to forced begging within
the country, as well as in Mali and Nigeria, by religious instructors
known as marabouts. They also are subjected to domestic
servitude, prostitution, and forced labor in gold mines, agriculture,
and stone quarries within the country. Nigerien children, primarily
girls, also are subjected to prostitution along the border with
Nigeria, particularly along the main highway in the towns of Birni N’
Konni and Zinder. Nigerien girls reportedly entered into
“marriages” with citizens of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United
Arab Emirates, whereby they were forced into domestic servitude
upon arrival in these countries. In the Tahoua region of Niger,
girls born into slavery were reportedly forced to marry men who
bought them and subsequently subjected them to forced labor
and sexual servitude. Niger is a transit country for women and
children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana,
Mali, Nigeria, and Togo migrating en route to Algeria, Libya, and
Western Europe; some may be subjected to forced labor in Niger
as domestic servants, mechanics and welders, or laborers in
mines and on farms. To a lesser extent, Nigerien women and
children are recruited from Niger and transported to Nigeria,
North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for domestic servitude
and sex trafficking.
The Government of Niger does not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making
significant efforts to do so. Despite these efforts, the government
did not demonstrate overall increased efforts to address human
trafficking over the previous year; therefore Niger is placed on
Tier 2 Watch List for a second consecutive year. The government
acknowledges that trafficking, including slavery, is a problem in
the country. The country was led by a transition government
during the reporting period; this regime, appointed following the
February 2010 coup, lacked a budget and constitutional authority
for much of the year. In December 2010, the transitional
government enacted the country’s first specific law to address
trafficking; however, the government’s few efforts to investigate
and prosecute trafficking offenses during the year came only after
receiving complaints from NGOs, and efforts to prosecute cases
of traditional slavery and to provide assistance to victims
remained weak.
For full report click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Terrorism Report 2010
Overview: Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) continued to
exploit ungoverned space in Nigerien territory. It took advantage
of porous borders and the huge expanse of Niger not under
government control to conduct contraband smuggling and
kidnappings. Niger was committed to fighting AQIM and worked
with other regional partners and organizations to support its
counterterrorism efforts, notably the General Staff Joint
Operations Committee (CEMOC), which also included Algeria,
Mali, and Mauritania.
2010 Terrorist Incidents: Niger continued to be a victim of AQIM
attacks, including kidnappings and anti-government operations:
* In January, two local residents reported that two vehicles
allegedly carrying AQIM-affiliated personnel were spotted in
northwestern Niger looking for Westerners to kidnap. A Nigerien
patrol sent to the area was attacked and the perpetrators fled
towards the Mali-Niger border. Hunted by a Nigerien security
force, 15 AQIM members were eventually killed, along with four
Nigerien soldiers.
* On March 8, in what was believed to be a revenge attack for the
January clash, AQIM attacked a Nigerien armed forces forward-
operating post with a vehicle bomb, mortars, heavy machine guns,
and small arms. Five Nigerien soldiers died in the attack.
* On April 22, a French humanitarian worker, Michel Germaneau,
was kidnapped in northern Niger, taken across the border into
Mali, and murdered three months later in apparent retaliation for
French support of Mauritanian counterterrorism operations in
northern Mali.
* On September 16, five French nationals, one Togolese, and one
Malagasy, all sub-contracted employees of the French uranium
mining firm Areva, were kidnapped in Arlit. Nigerien forces
followed the tire tracks to the border with Mali. AQIM claimed
responsibility for the kidnappings.
Countering Terrorist Finance: In January, Niger passed a law
implementing the International Convention on the Suppression of
the Financing of Terrorism. In July, Niger created the National
Coordinating Committee on the Fight against Money Laundering
and Terrorist Financing. Niger is a member of the Inter-
Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West
Africa, a Financial Action Task Force-style regional body.
Regional and International Cooperation: Niger cooperated with U.
S. counterterrorism efforts and is a Trans-Sahara
Counterterrorism Partnership country. Over the past year, Niger
has entered into a partnership to establish and conduct
operations with Mali, Algeria, and Mauritania out of the CEMOC
center in Tamanrasset, Algeria. In September, after the
kidnapping in Arlit, Niger agreed to permit French forces to
conduct surveillance operations in Niamey.
____________________________________________________
Links:
Worldwide AML Legislation (International Bar Association)
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| Further Tables |
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*Please note that FATF deems that a country has significant aml deficiencies if any
of the 'Core' Recommendations, R1, R5, R10, R13, SRII, or SRIV are rated either
Partially of Non-Compliant. These are marked in red.
For FATF to remove a country from the regular follow-up process, it has to be rated
Compliant or Largely Compliant in the above mentioned Core Recommendations
and the following Key Recommendations: -
R3, R4, R23, R26, R35, R36, R40, SRI, SRIII, SRV
Please also note that any risk assessment should take into consideration all
follow-up reports.
of the 'Core' Recommendations, R1, R5, R10, R13, SRII, or SRIV are rated either
Partially of Non-Compliant. These are marked in red.
For FATF to remove a country from the regular follow-up process, it has to be rated
Compliant or Largely Compliant in the above mentioned Core Recommendations
and the following Key Recommendations: -
R3, R4, R23, R26, R35, R36, R40, SRI, SRIII, SRV
Please also note that any risk assessment should take into consideration all
follow-up reports.
| NIGER |
| KnowYourCountry |
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| Last Updated: 16 April 2012 |