2024-03-27 05:24:02
Seventy-two ministers, mayors, deputies and businessmen from Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic, countries in Central Africa whose population poverty is devastating, owned ( and for some, still own) high-end properties in upscale areas of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, during 2019-2020.
This figure is the result of an eight-month search, completed in February 2023, in the Center for Advanced Defense Studies database (C4ADS), a United States-based organization that « combats illicit networks that threaten peace and security around the world ». In 2019 and 2020, the C4ADS has identified investors in Dubai from all countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (Cemac), with the exception of Equatorial Guinea. They are generally businessmen or women, political leaders, local elected officials, magistrates and general directors, as well as their spouses, their children and their relatives.
The Déby family, relatives of Sassou…
Among these African owners in Dubai is Cameroonian Moufta Halia Moussa, businesswoman and MP since 2007 for the ruling party, the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (CPDM), whose eight apartments are estimated at more than 15 million dollars (13.8 million euros). Chadian businessman Hissein Bourma Ibrahim, former director of the Société des hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT) and brother-in-law of the late Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, is also in the database. Bourma Ibrahim owns a villa, seven apartments and a shopping center, whose value is estimated at more than $7 million.
Other members of the late president’s family, including his older brother Daoussa Déby – all linked to the management of Chad’s oil revenues and finances – spent more than $2.3 million on apartments in neighborhoods Dubai’s posh hotels such as Business Bay and Al Warsan First. The total value of Chadian investments in the city is estimated at $14.5 million.
The former president of the Constitutional Court of Gabon, Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo (commonly known as “ 3M ), recently appointed honorary president of this same Court, as well as her children own numerous villas and apartments in Dubai, the total value of which is estimated at $3.5 million. Other Gabonese owners in the database include relatives of politicians and government officials, with assets worth more than $12 million.
Among the Congolese appearing in this database are several close collaborators of the octogenarian president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou-N’Guesso. Fifteen properties estimated at $9.5 million belong to Blandine Malila Lumande, Sassou-N’Guesso’s daughter-in-law, and five, worth nearly $2 million, to Raymond Zéphirin Mboulou, the irremovable Minister of the Interior of Congo since 2007.
« The question is whether the funds have a credible origin »
A now deceased Cameroonian, former honorary consul general in South Korea, Mohamadou Dabo, owned, at the time of data collection, an apartment in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, worth over 510 000 dollars. According to reports in Cameroon, Dabo’s company, Moda Holding Corporation, benefited from numerous state contracts, including a tender for the supply of Covid-19 tests worth of more than $40 million, which was cited in a report by the Cameroonian Court of Auditors as being « suspect » (as part of what was called, in the country, the “ Covidgate “). In 2020, the late honorary diplomat led a delegation of officials from the British investment company The First Group to Cameroon, in order to present investment opportunities in Dubai’s real estate sector.
It is possible that the database contains many other personalities from Central African countries, but it is difficult to find them all. Indeed, according to Louison Essomba, expert in public governance and professor of political science at the University of Douala, « these public figures usually use fake names, which may be those of their friends, parents or children ». Our research nevertheless linked 117 properties, estimated in total at $54 million, to prominent officials, politicians and businesspeople in the above-mentioned countries.
Cameroonian Joseph Lwanga Nguefack-Sonkoué, representative of Lagertha Africa, an investment consultancy company, is not surprised by the number of African personalities owning property in Dubai. « For several yearshe explains, Dubai aggressively promotes foreign investment. It was a desert just a few decades ago ! These investments, particularly in real estate, come with incentives in the form of residence permits and others. This gives the choice to every African who can afford this luxury to take advantage of it to guarantee a stay there. » Business lawyer Jacques Jonathan Nyemb adds: « Investing in Dubai is not in itself a wrongdoing, a criminal act or an act of tax evasion… The question here is whether the funds have a credible, dubious or fraudulent origin. »
Investments “ worrying »
Louison Essomba explains that« a specific law applies to civil servants who [investissent] in a foreign country. If there was good governance and the application of the law on the declaration of assets – which, [son] opinion, is the barometer of the fight against corruption and illicit enrichment – we should then track down all those who enrich themselves on the back of state wealth ».
Despite the existence of laws in the countries concerned, most CEMAC politicians and officials have not declared their assets. Jean Mballa Mballa, executive director of the African Regional Center for Endogenous and Community Development (Cradec) and member of the Cameroonian committee of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (Itie), underlines: « It is worrying to see civil servants such as judges or elected officials such as MPs investing in Dubai without clear declaration of their assets, particularly when the origin of their wealth cannot be traced. »
« Central African oligarchs are fleeing because their operations are not justified. Dubai is a financial center for money laundering and metals trading from Africa »explains Andréa Gombet, activist and founder of Sassoufit collective, an organization that brings together citizens fighting against kleptocracy in Congo. An opinion shared by Claude Hyepdo, coordinator of Transparency International Cameroon: « Dubai has become the new Eldorado of our authorities, especially since it is very discreet. » He recalls that Dubai is « the main market for Cameroonian gold ».
The platform of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts (CADTM) indicated in 2021 on its website that « The European Union has estimated that stolen African assets held in foreign bank accounts are equivalent to more than half of the continent’s external debt. Every year, Africa loses approximately $88.6 billion due to illicit capital flight, which is equivalent to 3.7 % of the continent’s gross domestic product. »
Illicit enrichment via state entities
Following the release of this report in 2021, Cristina Duarte, UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Advisor for Africa, stated that « the $88.6 billion that Africa loses every year is not just a number. They must be seen in terms of missed development opportunities, lost livelihoods and increased poverty ». In Chad, for example, « the consequences of the exploitation of Chadian oil were followed by enormous financial flowsexplains Nadibigue Pinah Padja, president of theONG Transparency+, an organization that fights corruption in Chad. This internal resource created a social imbalance and only enriched the ruling elites. This illicit enrichment most often occurs through state entities such as customs, tax services, and the award of major contracts. Several reports show that these sums are invested in tax havens to the detriment of local development. »
The General Directorate of Taxes (DGI) of Cameroon did not respond to any of the communications (email, telephone, WhatsApp) in which we asked whether there were provisions governing this type of investment and whether there were Cameroonian investors whose funds could be doubtful origin.
Reached by telephone, the Minister of the Interior of Congo, Raymond Zéphirin Mboulou, declared: « You got the wrong person »ensuring that he had not « no property in Dubai ». Cameroonian MP Moufta Halia Moussa, also reached by telephone, asked us to call her back. This attempt, as well as all those we made to contact her again by phone or WhatsApp over the following weeks, were in vain.
The Cameroonian mayor of Pouma municipality, Dorothée Nyodog-Ngo Mboua, who owns an apartment in Dubai worth over $200,000, responded to a phone call saying: « I can’t answer, I’m in a meeting. » When we offered to call her back later, she indicated that she was very busy and that the « network could be unstable » for the next call. We contacted her again the next day, but were asked to call her back between 5 and 6 p.m. When we tried to call him at that time, his phone was turned off.
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