"East Africa—a key security partner in the war on terror and a principal engine of economic development on the African continent—is being critically undermined by illicit trade, according to the new report An Unholy Alliance: Links Between Extremism...

"According to a new report commissioned by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and authored by Sir Ivor Roberts, a senior CEP senior advisor, terrorists groups continue to cash in on the illegal ivory trade to pay their soldiers."

Illicit trade in East Africa is facilitating and funding extremists, terrorists and warlords, a new Counter Extremism Project (CEP) report has revealed.

CEP report referenced: "Illicit trade is burning billion-dollar holes in the East African Community (EAC) bloc, fuelled by weak border controls and systemic political corruption by private interests, new report reveals."

"Tunisia has not taken a public stance on repatriation. 'More than 800 of [its] fighters have already returned — and quite a few of them undetected,' said Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, a senior director at the Geneva-based Counter Extremism Project."

"The Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a nonpartisan advocacy organization, was the first to notice the anti-Semitic and racist items. CEP wrote a letter to GearBubble CEO Donald Wilson on Feb. 4, informing him of the merchandise and asking GearBubble...

"'Illicit trade is the lifeblood which sustains extremist groups operating in East Africa,' wrote Sir Ivor Roberts, a former British ambassador to Yugoslavia, Ireland and Italy, in a report for the Counter Extremism Project."

CEP report referenced: "Le rapport de Sir Roberts s’intitule ; « Une Alliance impie : les liens entre l’extrémisme et le trafic illégal en Afrique de l’Est ». Ce rapport a été produit pour l’ONG Projet Contre l’Extrémisme."

CEP Senior Advisor Sir Ivor Roberts discussed findings of his new report, "An Unholy Alliance: Links Between Extremism and Illicit Trade in East Africa". Interview begins at 25:40.

CEP report referenced: "A new report that connects the unholy alliance between illicit trade and extremism has asked East African nations to uproot illicit trade networks, to free up the resources needed to fight the crime."