President Museveni has urged Eastern and Southern African nations to strengthen regional collaboration in combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, warning that financial crimes pose a direct threat to national security, economic stability, and development.

Speaking at the opening of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) meeting, Museveni emphasized the urgent need for coordinated efforts to dismantle illicit financial networks.

“Money laundering and the financing of terrorism are not mere financial crimes. They undermine trust in financial systems, discourage investment, and support criminal networks that destabilize our societies,” Museveni stated.

He highlighted that Africa loses billions of dollars annually due to illicit financial flows, mainly through organized crime, corruption, and tax evasion.

The President commended ESAAMLG and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for their continued efforts in pushing for stronger Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) measures.

Museveni warned that terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State (IS) exploit weaknesses in financial systems to fund their activities.

He also noted that the rapid digitalization of financial transactions has created new vulnerabilities, with extremist groups increasingly using online platforms for recruitment and fundraising.

“The Eastern and Southern African region faces threats from terrorist groups, including Al-Shabaab and IS. Digitalization in Sub-Saharan Africa has opened up new avenues for these groups to radicalize and fundraise online, presenting fresh challenges for counter-terrorism efforts,” he said.

The Ugandan leader emphasized that combating financial crimes requires constant vigilance, given that criminals continuously adapt their methods to evade detection.

Museveni reaffirmed Uganda’s commitment to fighting money laundering and terrorism financing, highlighting the country’s legal and institutional reforms that contributed to its removal from the FATF “grey list” in 2024.

“Uganda, like other ESAAMLG member states, has undertaken significant steps to combat these threats. We have strengthened our legal frameworks, built robust institutions, and enhanced intelligence-sharing with regional and international partners,” he stated.

He also stressed the importance of Africa’s economic independence, urging regional governments to focus on industrialization and value addition rather than exporting raw materials.

“Africa remains vulnerable to economic and political exploitation. To change this, we must transition from exporting raw materials to industrial production. This will create jobs, grow our economies, and strengthen our position in the global market,” he added.

Museveni concluded by urging ESAAMLG member states to prioritize unity, economic integration, and infrastructural development to strengthen Africa’s resilience against financial crimes.

“As a community, we must work together to secure the integrity of the global financial system. Uganda remains fully committed to the ESAAMLG agenda and will continue supporting initiatives that promote financial security and economic stability,” he affirmed.

The ESAAMLG meeting brought together regional leaders, financial regulators, and international partners to discuss measures for strengthening the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Gabon’s Brice Oligui Nguema will try to ride the advantages of incumbency and a popular crackdown on corruption to make the jump from junta leader to democratically-elected president in an election scheduled for April 12.

The 50-year-old general seized power in the oil-producing Central African country in an August 2023 coup against his distant cousin President Ali Bongo, one of eight successful putsches in West and Central African countries since 2020.

He promised in the days after the coup to hand over power to civilians in a transition back to constitutional rule, but declared his candidacy for president last month.

Nguema is favoured to win the eight-candidate race, in which his main challenger is seen as Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, Bongo’s last prime minister.

The coup was largely welcomed by Gabonese tired of 56 years of rule by Ali Bongo and his father, Omar, during which the country emerged as one of Africa’s leading oil producers but poverty remained widespread.

A new constitution championed by Nguema was approved with 92% of the vote last November and his very public crackdown on corruption is widely viewed as popular.

“Gabonese tell themselves that someone who works with this much ardour is trying to transform things,” said Joseph Tonda, sociologist at Omar Bongo University in Libreville, adding that Nguema was well-placed to win.

Yet Rogers Orock, a Gabon expert at Lafayette College in the United States, said it was doubtful the election would be fair, and that the true depth of Nguema’s reforms would be visible after his term begins.

“The question is how far-reaching he will be willing to take these changes forward once he has fully transitioned from a military ruler to a civilian president,” he said.

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

Nguema, who was the commander of Gabon’s Republican Guard at the time of the coup, has styled himself since taking over as a crusader against the endemic graft of the Bongo era.

A week after seizing power, he publicly dressed down the heads of public agencies, ordering them to return any stolen money within 48 hours.

The clampdown has resulted in the arrests of several corporate executives and testimony by government officials before a commission investigating graft.

But Nguema has also faced questions about his own finances. A 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, found he had bought three properties in the U.S. state of Maryland for a total of over $1 million in cash.

He declined to respond to questions from OCCRP, saying his private life should be respected, and has not commented further on the matter.

On another major issue – Gabon’s historically close ties to former colonial master France – he has signalled continuity with the Bongo era, talking up his close relationship with President Emmanuel Macron and visiting France several times.

“We have very good relations and France is our historic partner,” he told Radio France Internationale last week.

That approach is markedly different from several other juntas that took power in the region since 2020 – including in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – which have ended longstanding defence cooperation with France and encouraged growing public resentment over France’s historic presence in the region.

The election will be Gabon’s first since the August 2023 vote that directly precipitated the coup. Opposition leaders alleged fraud after Bongo was elected to a third term.

Announcing his candidacy last month, Nguema said he “dreams of a Gabon that rises from the ashes”. He added: “I am a builder and I need your courage, your force, to build this nation.”

The US has been unable to meaningfully respond to the Myanmar earthquake due to the Trump administration’s decision to slash foreign aid, according to three former senior US officials.

One former US Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director for Myanmar told the BBC that “America has been on the sidelines” after the disaster.

“The US basically was not there for the rescue-window period,” said another official. All three suggested the deep cuts to aid probably cost lives.

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck on Friday, leaving at least 2,700 people dead, more than 4,500 injured and hundreds still missing, according to the country’s military. Those figures are expected to rise.

The former USAID officials said the agency mobilised Disaster Assistance Response Teams (Darts) from the US after previous major earthquakes. Comprised of highly trained rescuers, sniffer dogs and specialist equipment, the teams are immediately made ready then dispatched when the affected country requests them.

A typical deployment, like that sent to the Turkey-Syria earthquake in 2023, could comprise some 200 people – the majority of them rescue workers. US teams are often the biggest of all foreign assistance groups on the ground.

The US Department of State said on Monday a US team based in the region was on its way to Myanmar. It is believed to comprise three people who are advisers, not rescuers.

The state department also said it was donating $2m (£1.6m) to humanitarian assistance organisations to support earthquake-affected communities. This figure is significantly smaller than previous US government donations during disasters, according to the former officials.

President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk is finalising the shutdown of USAID after weeks spent dismantling the agency and placing staff on administrative leave. Trump targeted foreign assistance on his first day in office, calling it an “industry” that was in many cases “antithetical to American values”.

On Friday, after the earthquake struck, the White House attempted to mobilise a Dart team, according to Andrew Natsios, who served as USAID administrator in George W Bush’s administration. But, he said, it couldn’t because key officials were on administrative leave.

“The problem is they fired most of the 500 people that make up the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, so obviously there are no people [from the bureau] to be on the Dart team to be sent – and the people have to be trained and be familiar with disaster relief operations,” he said.

Staff at the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance received letters of termination the day the earthquake struck, said Chris Milligan, who served as USAID Mission Director in Myanmar from 2012 to 2016.

“The employees… were told to go home by one o’clock. Everyone was told. All employees in that building were told to go home at one o’clock, and then they were told later to come back,” said Mr Milligan.

“It shows the lack of management and the confusion that there was an earthquake earlier, and they didn’t have the foresight to say ‘Okay, let’s retain these people’.”

Two of the former USAID officials said the administration couldn’t deploy US search and rescue teams, sniffer dogs and specialist equipment to Myanmar because logistics contracts to transport them from Virginia and California had been cancelled as part of the cuts, led by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

“It is the first time that I can think of that the US has simply not responded meaningfully to a major disaster,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, who ran the USAID Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) from 2013 to 2016.

He said for the last few decades, with every disaster on this scale, the US would be the largest and most capable team on the ground.

“You’ve got 75 to 100 people, the dogs and it’s a pretty substantial lift [which] you’ve got to get there, operating and excavating piles, within the first really four days.”

“The US basically was not there for the rescue window, period. And it’s too late,” said Mr Konyndyk.

It’s unlikely the agency could reactivate logistics contracts in time for a Dart team to Myanmar in time to save lives, he said. “If you wanted to issue new ones, the people who could issue new contracts and do the tenders for that, they’ve all been fired,” explained Mr Konyndak.

The US state department rejects the notion that the cuts have impacted disaster relief in Myanmar.

The department had partners it worked with “that may not require us to be physically present”, spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said on Monday.

“With the reform that the government is going through with the lead of President Trump… certain things won’t necessarily look the same. But the success in the work and our impact will still be there,” she said.

However, Mr Konyndyk described the claim as “fantasy land”.

“You can’t pull people out of a building virtually, you can’t excavate, you can’t do live rescues from a collapsed building without boots on the ground,” he said.

Chris Milligan, the former USAID mission director for Myanmar, said the rescue capacity available in the United States would double the capacity already on the ground in Myanmar.

“This is the new normal. This is what it looks like when the United States sits on the international sidelines, when the United States is a weaker international player, when it cedes the space to other global players like China,” said Mr Milligan.

The state department told the BBC it did not intend to deploy a Dart team to Myanmar, adding it was continuing many existing lifesaving programs and strategic investments that “strengthen our partners and our own country”.

A state department spokesperson said: “USAID has contracts in place with Urban Search and Rescue Teams to assist in responding to disasters.”

“[A] USAID team of humanitarian experts based in the region are traveling to Burma to assess additional needs,” the spokesperson continued.

“A Dart is essentially a coordination mechanism. We are able to coordinate with our partners for this specific response without a Dart. Every response is different,” added the spokesperson.