Azerbaijan bought 500 tons of weapons to repressive Congo regime
That is the startling story of Azerbaijan, a rustic that buys arms from others for its personal wants, promoting tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in arms to a rustic in Central Africa.
The article, titled “Strongman from Congo-Brazzaville Purchases Secret Weapons Transport to Azerbaijan,” was revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Venture (OCCRP) on February 22, 2021. It was written by Khadija Sharife and Mark Anderson. Congo-Brazzaville is one other title for the Republic of Congo.
Right here is the OCCRP abstract of the principle findings of the article:
“Since 2015, Congo-Brazzaville has purchased an enormous stockpile of weapons from Azerbaijan, with greater than 500 tons of weapons delivered to the nation in a number of shipments.
In January 2020, greater than 100 tons of weapons had been despatched from Azerbaijan to the Republican Guard of Congo-Brazzaville, together with 775 mortar shells and greater than 400 instances of rockets meant to be launched from vehicles.
Opposition figures declare that Azerbaijan’s earlier arms shipments had been used to gasoline a brutal post-election offensive in 2016 that led to a humanitarian disaster.
Saudi Arabia was on the record of “ sponsors ” in no less than two arms shipments despatched in 2016 and 2017, across the identical time Congo-Brazzaville was admitted to OPEC. [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] was beneath negotiation.
In response to the OCCRP, “In January 2020, within the Turkish port of Derince on the jap shore of the Sea of Marmara, an enormous cache of weapons was loaded onto the MV Storm. Registered within the tax haven of Vanuatu, the ship set sail with an arsenal of mortar shells, a number of rocket launchers and explosives, en route from Azerbaijan to the Republic of Congo, higher often known as of Congo-Brazzaville.
The above abstract raises a number of critical questions: why was Azerbaijan transport arms to the Republic of Congo when Baku itself wanted arms? What’s the actual supply of the arms shipped to the Congo? Azerbaijan? Or Turkey? Why did Saudi Arabia sponsor two of the arms shipments in 2016 and 2017, that means the Saudi authorities paid for the arms? Why did the dictators of Azerbaijan and Turkey attempt to help President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the dictator of the Republic of Congo, in energy since 1997? What did Azerbaijan or Turkey get in trade for the arms deliveries?
In January 2020, greater than 100 tons of weapons price tens of tens of millions of {dollars} had been shipped from Azerbaijan to the headquarters of the elite Congolese Republican Guard. It was the final of no less than 17 such expeditions since 2015. In complete, greater than 500 tons of weapons, together with hand grenades, mortar techniques and tens of millions of bullets had been despatched by. Azerbaijan in Congo, based on OCCRP.
Opposition forces claimed that these weapons had been for use by the President of Congo to take care of his energy by power through the presidential election on March 21. He lately had the structure modified in order that he will be president for all times!
How can a financially bankrupt nation just like the Congo afford to purchase such a lot of arms? By funding two of the arms deliveries, Saudi Arabia wished to increase its political affect over the Congo.
Azerbaijan’s most up-to-date arms cargo to Congo in January 2020 included 775 mortar shells and greater than 400 instances of rockets. They had been transported from Baku to Turkey by a Bulgarian firm after which loaded onto the MV Storm ship in Derince, a port operated by the Turkish authorities. An inside supply confirmed that Congo purchased the weapons at lowered costs.
The Congolese authorities has used Azerbaijani weapons towards the opposition in a scorched earth technique, based on the chief of a political get together in Congo. Given the regime’s brutal human rights report, no European nation would promote arms to the Congo. Within the 2016 presidential election, america criticized the Congolese authorities for “widespread irregularities and arrests of opposition supporters”. This month’s presidential election is predicted to be simply as corrupt as earlier ones. “The federal government is waging a pre-election marketing campaign of intimidation, harassment and arbitrary detention towards its political opponents,” stated an Amnesty Worldwide consultant.
The OCRP reported that “the primary arms shipments arrived in Brazzaville on Azerbaijani Air Pressure planes, however from 2017 a [Azeri] the service, Silk Means Airways, began utilizing the weapons as an alternative. … Silk Means is registered within the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven, and was beforehand linked to the Aliyev household. Along with profitable profitable contracts with the US authorities to maneuver ammunition and different non-lethal supplies, Silk Means was found, in correspondence leaked by the Bulgarian newspaper Trud, to have used diplomatic flights to maneuver secretly lots of of tons of weapons. on this planet, together with in international battle zones, between 2014 and 2017. ”
The opposition in Congo fears that Azerbaijan’s weapons improve the prospects of violence across the elections. “We concern that the weapons bought by the Sassou-Nguesso regime from Azerbaijan may very well be used to crack down on the opposition within the upcoming elections,” stated an opposition chief.
The United Nations ought to launch an investigation into these secret arms gross sales from Azerbaijan to the dictator of the Congo to oppress the human rights of the native inhabitants and rig the presidential election once more!
Harut Sassounian is the editor of California Courier, a weekly primarily based in Glendale, California. He’s the chairman of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit group that has donated $ 917 million in humanitarian support to Armenia and Artsakh, primarily medicine, since 1989 (together with its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He was adorned by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Apostolic and Armenian Catholic church buildings. He’s additionally the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
