AML-CFT ESCAY

In recent years, the countries in East, South and Central Africa have seen a sharp increase in criminal and terrorist activity. Indeed, these regions are faced with the establishment of various criminal and terrorist groups who are developing new networks and trafficking to finance their actions. To counter this threat to peace and security in these regions, the European Union has set up two projects since 2015, targeting the illegal capital of these groups.

Project 1 (2015-2018) "Anti-Money Laundering and Coutering the financing of Terrorism in the Greater Horn of Africa - AML/THB" which covered 10 countries: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen.

Project 2 (2019-2022) "Anti-Money Laudering/Trafficking of Human Beings and Smuggling of Migrants in the Greater Horn of Africa - AML/THB" which covered the 10 countries of project 1, as well as 6 others: Comoros, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Seychelles.

These two previous projects laid the foundations for international cooperation in the fight against illegal financial flows and money laundering.

The ESCAY project is therefore the third project of its kind, complementing and extending the fight against the financing of terrorism and organised crime.

This project therefore builds strongly on the previous achievements established since 2015, while involving even more countries in its actions. Thanks to the cooperation networks already created, the ESCAY project can extend even further to 33 African countries as well as the Yemen. This extended cooperation will make it possible to cover vast regions and thus to pursue the capital and financial flows of transnational organised crime and terrorist groups beyond their borders. In addition, this project relies on multiple stakeholders to enclose the financial actions of criminal and terrorist groups as widely as possible. Actors from the financial sector (central banks, Financial Intelligence Units, banks, companies, banking sector companies, etc.), the justice sector (judges, prosecutors, etc.) and the courts (police, investigators, etc.) are directly involved in this project.

The aim is to support the response capabilities of national institutions and players already in place to track down and eliminate illicit financial flows (IFFs), while ensuring regional, inter-regional and international cooperation between these different players. It should be noted that the operational means of action, tools and cooperation models implemented in the ESCAY project are in line with the recommendations made by the FATF in the fight against illicit financial flows from transnational organised crime and the financing of terrorism. The objectives set by CIVIPOL in this project are perfectly in line with those of the FATF and the European Union.

https://amlcft-escay.eu/