The National Financial Information Processing Unit (Centif) and the Ministry of Security and Civil Protection jointly organized a 3-day workshop for commanders of national gendarmerie brigades, including 134 brigades represented. The objective of the training is to strengthen the capacity of these security men on the fight against the financing of terrorism and money laundering.

The fight against money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is one of Mali's priorities. The workshop started on Monday at the National School of the Gendarmerie with the signing of an agreement between the two parties.

The president of the National Financial Information Processing Unit (Centif), Marimpa Samoura, believes that the assessments have shown that in Mali, most actors involved in the fight against terrorism generally do not have or have a little of knowledge in the detection of terrorist financing actors.

“Submitting in full sovereignty to a requirement of the Gafi, Mali has consented to the evaluation of its mechanism for the fight against money laundering, the financing of terrorism and proliferation by peers. The resulting report reveals that Mali faces a significant risk of terrorist financing by local terrorists financed locally on the one hand and on the other hand by terrorists who have pledged allegiance to international actors and whose receive support. Funding sources come from Zakat collection and some non-profit organizations. Illegal sources of financing include, in addition to criminal activities,” he explains.

Many techniques for spotting financial criminals will be presented to the trainees by experts in the fight against terrorism and money laundering. The trainers will explain all the methods used by financial criminals, the harmful consequences that result from their malicious actions and the most appropriate solutions to circumscribe them by putting them out of harm's way.