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“Educating women and educating girls @MENASTREAM is a good source of
will reduce the birth rate and reduces security information on Twitter, while
poverty. This is something that the West the Live Universal Awareness app is a
should be doing; it is not going to happen in free application that provides up to date
information on events happening around
one day. the world. The Australian Mining Network
WhatsApp group has been efficient
in providing updates and was at full
capacity at the time of print
ing women and girls and improving gender regional vulnerabilities, ning. Having a vigilant workforce, good
equality outcomes and civil society out- often engaging a com- security culture at all levels of the organi-
comes are some of the areas targeted for bination of intimidation, sation and an effective means of captur-
Australian Government assistance. exploitation of ethnic ten- ing security-related information is always
sions and financial con- a critical component for reviewing the pri-
Meanwhile, outreach programmes such trol to gain influence. ority on various risks. There are proven
as the security conference and forums preventative security measures that can
addressing kidnap and ransom situations “Unfortunately large assist to deter and limit the potential ac-
have been on DFAT’s agenda in recent ransoms paid by some cess availability. The most resilient mining
years. countries/people have operations will be constantly updating their
helped sustain terrorist risk assessment.â€
At the security conference, First Assis- activity, and we are wor-
tant Secretary of the Africa and Middle East ried that it is possible that – Mark Andrews
Division, HK Yu, announced support for extremist groups will shift
the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping focus to commercial tar- Education is key to ensuring living
Training Centre to host two Regional Inter- geting in the future. This standards are lifted across Africa in
Agency Counter-Terrorism workshops, requires a more securi-
which aim to improve coordination and co- tised approach to mining the future
operation among regional police, military operations and the Aus-
and intelligence services. tralian High Commission in consultation
with other key stakeholders, will explore op-
The first of two workshops will take place portunities for further mining industry-wide
in Ghana in August. initiatives to improve safety and security for
personnel and assets in the region,†Askew
“With the mining industry in the region said.
facing threats from kidnapping for ransom,
direct action raids and denial of access at- In the meantime, Northover from Pinker-
tacks, companies are encouraged to en- ton – a global leader in risk management
gage in risk management and mitigation; services – believes the climate is still ripe
and complete risk assessments and a risk for investment in Africa, as long as compa-
registry,†Australia Africa Minerals and En- nies have a clear idea of the security situa-
ergy Group (AAMEG) chief executive Wil- tion they face.
liam Witham said.
Northover emphasised the situation in
AAMEG is collaborating with DFAT and parts of West Africa would degarde further
the Australian Strategic Policy Institute before they improved.
(ASPI), in response to the changing secu-
rity situation in West Africa through discus- “Companies operating in West Africa
sion focused on greater industry collabo- must be very clear on what a robust se-
ration, information sharing and collective curity threat analysis looks like; with a re-
action against the backdrop of underlying alistic assessment on the capabilities of
drivers including; the impacts of the 2011 specific groups. There is
Libyan uprising; partial displacement of Is- limited value in grouping
lamic State from Iraq and Syria into West all security risks under
Africa; the fall of the Blaise Compaoré re- the “terrorist†banner
gime, Burkina Faso, in 2014 and challenges without assessing the
confronting the UN’s MINUSMA peace- more likely risk events
keeping initiative. that apply in the local
operating area such
While threats over the past 12 months as illegal mining, theft,
have shifted from historic religious drivers community protests and
to varied and overlapping factors including malicious acts,†North-
income and protection, growing risks ex- over said.
ist where terrorist groups (Ansaroul Islam,
Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin [JNIM], “Jihadi groups, lo-
and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara), cal militants and crimi-
new violent extremist groups and coalitions nal gangs will typically
are increasing the tempo of complex at- conduct surveillance on
tacks via local disgruntled groups. target facilities and con-
sider security measures
These terrorist groups are focused on in place during their plan-
addressing the concerns of local communi-
ties and exploiting community divisions and
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT AUGUST 2019 Page 23
