Hizbollah's virtually unchecked presence and activities on the
continent pose a security threat and works to further entrench illegal
and corrupt practices in some of Africa's weakest states and key
industries.
The 1990s were particularly good years for Hizbollah, which enjoyed the
protection of then-Liberian president Charles Taylor. Despite less
favorable conditions following Taylor's forced exile in 2003,
Hizbollah's presence and activities in Africa have persisted.
Douglas Farah, an expert on terrorist financing operations in Africa
and Latin America, told ISN Security Watch that as far as Hizbollah's
presence in Africa is concerned, the permissive environment still
exists, and the current is state is simply too weak to combat it.
West Africa is perhaps Hizbollah's most critical area of operation
outside of the Middle East, with the group using the region for
fundraising, recruitment and to operate gray and illegal businesses
that help fund operations elsewhere.
Following its recent successes against Israel, Hizbollah has expanded
its presence within and beyond the region. Perceived as the liberators
of southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation, Hizbollah's popularity was
boosted after Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, and again following
its perceived victory over the Jewish state in 2006. Hizbollah has
since been able to make great inroads into the more traditional Amal
Movement support base among the Shiite community in West Africa.
Although the distinction between Amal and Hizbollah in Africa has at
times been negligible, Amal (Afwaj al Muqawama al Lubnaniyya or
Lebanese Resistance Detachment), a rival Lebanese Shiite militia, has
enjoyed longstanding support among local Shiite communities, with key
Amal aligned families controlling the diamond trade from Freetown to
Kinshasa.
While closer political ties between Amal and Hizbollah have further
blurred lines of affiliation in recent years, broader support among
local communities for Hizbollah has been crucial in bolstering
fundraising and allowing Hizbollah to tap into established local
Lebanese business operations in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cte d'Ivoire
and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In more recent years, the
group has also been reportedly active in Senegal, Cameroon, Mali,
Guinea and Namibia.
Diamonds, a militant's best friend
Hizbollah's notoriety in Africa stems from its involvement in the
illicit trade in rough diamonds. Amal- and Hizbollah-affiliated
Lebanese dealers and buyers have traditionally been at the center of
the trade in conflict or blood diamonds in West Africa and the DRC.
Today, according to a recent joint report by Global Witness (GW) and
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), conflict diamonds still enter the
international market, and the illegal trade in rough diamonds is on the
rise. So much so, that the trafficking of conflict and illicit stones
is looking more like a dangerous rule than an exception.
It is believed that Lebanese dealers and brokers continue to make use
of illegal networks with Beirut, Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Dubai and Mumbai.
Lebanese buyers are active in all key diamond centers, as well as in
more remote areas in diamond-rich West and Central African states. From
Kono in eastern Sierra Leone to Mbuji-Mayi in southern DRC, buyers make
themselves accessible to informal, alluvial miners otherwise subject to
cumbersome, expensive diamond regulations, corrupt bureaucracy and
inaccessible trading centers.
While heavily reliant on these local
networks in West Africa, Hizbollah is rumored to have moved beyond them
in the DRC, where the group reportedly buys directly from local miners
and middlemen.
More recently, evidence was revealed in a PAC report suggesting
Lebanese involvement in smuggling rough diamonds out of Zimbabwe to
Dubai and Mumbai. Both diamond smuggling and official diamond exports
have increased as the country's economy has collapsed. Diamond fields
have been seized by the military, informal miners killed or driven
away, and local residents living in the vicinity forced to dig for
diamonds. According to the report, Zimbabwean diamonds are now
considered unclean and a key source of financial support for the regime
of Robert Mugabe.
In turn, Hizbollah benefits from established local networks, porous
borders, poor internal security and limited state capacity to enforce
regulations on the diamond trade.
Dangerous side effects
In February 2009, the one-year anniversary of the Mughniyeh
assassination raised fresh concerns for a possible Hizbollah attack on
Israeli nationals and business interests. Israel has significant
commercial interests across West Africa, and Israelis are heavily
involved in the diamond trade on the continent. An attempted attack on
Israeli diamond brokers in West Africa was rumored to have been
thwarted in early 2008, and a second warning was issued later in
August, prompting Israeli intelligence officials to visit the region.
Although the threat of such an attack is very serious, it is in itself
reflective of the side-effects of Hizbollah's engagement in the region.
Hizbollah's operations in Africa persist seemingly unconstrained and
despite international efforts to curb its activities and regulate the
diamond trade.
As Liberia, Sierra Leone and the DRC struggle to re-establish
themselves after years of conflict, and Zimbabwe struggles to dislodge
an unscrupulous regime, Hizbollah plays a key role in embedding illegal
practice within national diamond industries and entrenching corrupt
political elites.
Rather than terror attacks on foreign business interests, the more
pressing security threat posed by Hizbollah is its predominant role in
facilitating a currency by which bad leaders and corrupt regimes are
propped up, and war easily sustained by even the most ragtag of rebel
militias.
International Relations and Security Network (ISN)
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