[Excerpt translation from French to English provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

Jihadists are rolling in gold in the Sahel says International Crisis Group (ICG)... Indeed, according to ICG, “armed groups have been seizing gold mining sites in areas where the state is weak or absent since 2016. Their desire is fueled by the boom in the artisanal gold sector since the discovery in 2012 of a Saharan vein.” The countries concerned are Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which, as we know, are in the grip of terrorist violence... Therefore, it’s easy to understand the motives behind the attack on a convoy of the mining company SEMAFO on 6 November last...

Armed groups, including jihadists, are seeking to suffocate the Sahel countries economically. And as in war, all means are good, they try to get their hands on the gold mines in order to achieve financial and military health. This explains the increase in attacks in gold zones in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Because, in addition to being sources of income, gold sites constitute, for terrorists, a favorable ground for recruitment and training as well as for handling of explosives....

Because, if they manage to control gold mining sites, terrorists could more effectively stand up to our Defence and Security Forces (DSF)... It is therefore necessary to appeal to the responsibility of the leaders of the countries concerned, who must take full measure of the danger by making all what is possible to secure all gold mining sites that are not yet under terrorists control... It is not enough simply to take control of gold sites. It will be necessary, and ICG is right to point this out, for the "main importers" of Sahelian gold, namely China, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, etc., to work to strengthen the legal framework for gold imports in order to minimise the risks of money laundering and the financing of armed groups...