Displaying items by tag: terrorism
Lafarge Syria alleged to have paid armed groups up to US$100,000/month to keep cement plant running
09 October 2017France: Lafarge Cement Syria allegedly paid up to US$100,000/month to armed groups including US$20,000 to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. Former plant manager Bruno Pescheux told investigators that the money went via local businessman Firas Tlass, who was a former minority shareholder in the cement plant, according to the Agence France Presse. Witnesses in the French judicial inquiry have also described false accounting methods used to disguise oil purchases from IS, travel documents allowing Lafarge trucks to move in the region and a planned meeting between IS and a Lafarge Cement Syria security official. The inquiry continues.
LafargeHolcim vehicles targeted in Paris security incident
06 October 2017France: Petrol containers and burnt matches have been found under trucks at a LafargeHolcim site in Paris. Workers found the items underneath the vehicles on the morning of 5 October 2017, according to Agence France Presse. However, the incident is not thought to be terror related. Security camera footage shows the perpetrators trying to ignite the fuel on the night before. Investigators say that the ‘crude device’ had no chance of detonating. Lafarge France operates a number of concrete and aggregate units in the city.
The incident follows on-going anti-terrorism investigations in the city following the discovery of several gas canisters and a cell phone detonator earlier in October 2017. LafargeHolcim is also under investigation by the French judiciary for its conduct running a cement plant in Syria during the civil war.
France: The French government has confirmed that it is investigating Lafarge over alleged illegal activities in Syria following European Union (EU) sanctions that were imposed in 2012. The Paris prosecutor's office said that a probe was opened in October 2016 after the French Ministry of Economy and Finance filed a complaint against the cement producer, according to the Associated Press. LafargeHolcim, the company formed from a merger between Lafarge and Holcim in 2015, said that it was, “in the process of establishing the facts concerning our activities in Syria.”
A group led by the non-government organisation (NGO) Sherpa filed a complaint in Paris against Lafarge for allegedly ‘financing terrorism’ in November 2016. The complaint accused it of maintaining commercial relations with the Islamic State group in Syria in 2013 and 2014 so it could continue operating a cement plant in the country.
At the time, Lafarge denied ‘financing so-called terrorist groups.’ The company said it had launched a ‘thorough and independent investigation’ into the allegations to determine whether its internal code of conduct had been properly followed and if procedures needed to be adapted. It said it would implement ‘any remediation measures required.’
When to call it a day…?
26 October 2016One fascinating statistic stands out in a study on how the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) pays its bills: cement represented 4% of its revenue in 2015 or around US$100m. The Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism (CAT) came up with this figure as part of its analysis on how the group finances itself. Its data was based on available information such as local sources, internal ISIS documents and reports from governments and institutions.
What’s more, the previous year in 2014, CAT estimated that ISIS brought in US$300m from cement sales. The difference in revenue between 2015 and 2014 came about from the group losing control of territory. In late 2014 it controlled four cement plants: the Lafarge Al-Jalabiya plant in Ayn al-Arabin, the Al-Raqqah Guris Cement plant and Fallujah, Kubaisa and Al-Qa’im plants in Iraq. Altogether it had a cement production capacity of 7.5Mt/yr, a higher capacity than 62% of the cement producing nations that are recognised formally by the United Nations. Briefly it had production parity with countries like Angola, Uzbekistan and Kuwait.
However the loss of the Al-Jalabiya and Kubaisa plants has stifled this revenue stream. At its peak ISIS couldn’t have been selling cement for more than something like US$40/t (capacity / revenue) if the plants were operating at full capacity. Yet it’s much more likely that the plants were chronically under-utilised and prices significantly higher in the heat, dust and confusion of a militant group attempting to form a state in a warzone.
Global Cement Weekly has covered previously the furore that erupted when French media accused Lafarge of cutting deals with ISIS to keep its Jalabiya cement plant during the early stages of the Syrian Civil War. At the time of the revelations in June 2016 LafargeHolcim said that its first priority was the safety and security of its employees at the plant before it eventually closed it, although it did not deny accusations directly.
Since then the plant’s former security manager Jacob Waerness has popped up in an interview with Bloomberg in connection with a book he wrote about the affair. According to Waerness, Lafarge stayed in the country for too long before the plant was finally seized by ISIS in September 2014.
The problem for Lafarge, as other multinational companies left the warzone, was that the US$680m plant had only been operational since late 2010 before hostilities broke out in 2011. Essentially, it tried to wait out the conflict and then got left behind. Pertinent to the start of this column, Waerness says that as the more extreme groups took control of the surrounding area he was offered and declined a meeting with the IS finance chief in Raqqa in the summer of 2013. However else one might describe IS, it was and clearly is well aware of the revenue to be gained from functioning cement plants.
LafargeHolcim has since started an internal review into the reported allegations under the auspices of its Finance & Audit Committee. In September 2016 the Iranian-backed Fars News Agency was reporting that US special forces were using the Jalabiya plant as a base. If and when peace comes to the region it will be intriguing to find out what condition the plant is in. Until then, LafargeHolcim will have to wait and take the loss on its investment.
AshakaCem and Nigerian Army ramp up efforts in north east
30 September 2015Nigeria: AshakaCem and the Nigerian Army have scaled up efforts to rebuild the Northeast part of Nigeria, which has suffered devastating damage from the Boko Haram insurgency.
Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai and Chairman of AshakaCem Alhaji Suleiman Yahaya both spoke when the latter visited the former in his office in Abuja on 30 September 2015.
Lt Gen Buratai commended the management of AshakaCem for its philanthropic activities in the region, saying the cement firm has supported the country's war against the terrorists.
He described the attacks on the company last year as unfortunate, but urged its management not to relent in its effort at rebuilding the region.
Yahayah responded that his company was impressed by the security arrangement put in place around AshakaCem, even as he said the attacks had cost his company US$23m.
He promised that his company would step up its humanitarian efforts and would soon make a major announcement on its next move. AshakaCem is the largest employer in the Northeast.
Boko Haram raid targets Lafarge cement plant in Nigeria
05 November 2014Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram fighters have stolen dynamite and pick-up trucks from the Lafarge Ashaka Plant in Nigeria after robbing a bank. The attack in Ashaka, Gombe State on 4 November 2014 came after the Islamists robbed a bank, blew up a police station and set fire to a political party office 20km away in Nafada. Unlike previous attacks in recent months in the far northeast of the country, the militants did not attempt to hold the town.
"The factory was the target of the intruders. There were no injuries. There was no damage in the factory.... The situation is still calm and everything is back to normal," said Bruno Lafont, CEO of Lafarge. French diplomats in Nigeria said that none of its nationals were taken in the raid. Bruno Lafont said that operations had not been affected.
According to witnesses the gunmen stormed the site in the afternoon, looted explosives and demanded to be taken to where expatriate managers, French nationals, were staying. However the plant was mostly empty following the raid in Nafada, which left at least 10 dead.
The Lafarge Ashaka cement plant, set up in 1974, is the largest cement works in northern Nigeria and employs about 500 people, including an unspecified number of expatriates.