African lawyers vow to stop capital flight

Bar Akere Muna

By Numh Rogers in Yaounde
African lawyers have agreed to streamline their efforts in the fight against illicit financial flows from Africa. Speaking at the opening of a three-day convention of the Pan-African Lawyers Union holding in Yaounde on 5-7 June, the president of the Union, Cameroonian-born Barrister Akere Muna called for the repatriation of frozen assets from European banks to the African Development Bank.
    Citing Haiti that was cash-strung in crisis despite having trillions of dollars of frozen assets in European banks, Bar. Akere Muna pointed out that the funds would better serve the nations from which they originated, if transferred to the African Development Bank.

    The chairperson of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, Thabo Mbeki (former South African president) said that 1.4 trillion dollars left Africa illegally between 1980 and 2009, and the figures have only kept rising through the years. He blamed corruption, international crime and human trafficking for the ease with which money is laundered out of Africa. H.E Mbeki therefore called on all Africans to lend their effort to the fight against illicit financial flows from the continent.
    The lawyers are hoping to come out with solutions to seal the loopholes in the banking and judiciary systems of countries that allow for illicit cash flows.
Other speakers at the event included the prime minister of Cameroon, the world president of transparency international and the Government Delegate to the Yaounde City Council.