Murky flows in Africa – the Great Lakes Region

Anne-Marie Weeden, Senior Research Fellow in the Organised Crime and Policing Research Group at the UK's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said that the EU "seeks to secure trade in a strategically important area with obvious geopolitical risk." She said that while the heightened role of private sector involvement would be advantageous, bolstering economic development, there were risks in advancing transport corridors. "There is a fear of the unintended consequences, as happened with free trade zones in Asia - [that they] become hubs of money laundering and illicit activity. There needs to be certain risk monitoring, as it is vulnerable to exploitation," she observed.