Baioumy asserts AUPSC common platform for action against crimes

Ambassador Gamal Baioumy underlined its significance as it is parallel on the regional level to the United Nations Security Council

In the light of Egypt’s assumption of the presidency of the African Union Peace and Security Council in November, Ambassador Gamal Baioumy, Former Assistant to Foreign Minister, underlined its significance as it is parallel on the regional level to the United Nations Security Council but specified on African problems, as a result of internal and external conflicts.

In a phone call with (Africa Today), Baioumy said that Egypt is trying to introduce peaceful solutions to the African countries and this is the essential task of this council, believing that the Egyptian diplomacy has a long experience which allows it to solve problems in order to have a peaceful Africa. Peace is essential to development and it needs more communication among the continent’s countries to be achieved, he stressed.

In relating to Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s chairmanship of the AU Peace and Security Council’s session on countering extremist ideology and terror finance, he highlighted that Africa faces four main crimes; terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal migration, and money laundering, conveying that all these crimes we are committed to fight whether with our African partners or with the United Nations’ members. If you are fighting against one of these crimes, he mentioned, you are fighting against the others automatically as they support each other.

The ambassador also noted that with the new development on the banking system, new methods are used to deal with money as cash, for instance, is not accepted anymore. Thus, we can easily follow money transfers which are used by the terrorist groups. Money laundering is another issue, he added, assuming that following the money trail with the cooperation of African countries is one of the policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing. It is not an easy task but with mutual efforts it will succeed, he stressed.

He pinpointed that Egypt has an old and highly developed banking system compared to our African partners, mentioning the twinning in 2008 between the Central Bank of Egypt and both of the European Central Bank, and seven European central. Such a huge experience, he said, can be transmitted to the African countries to help them establish a system to ban illegal transfer of money.

Baioumy hailed Al-Azhar’s role describing it as “a wonderful job” performed to correct the religious discourse, pointing out that Al-Azhar is hosting tens of thousands of African students as well as sending advocates to provide true Islamic thoughts based on moderation. This is in addition to the Orthodox Church in Alexandria which is followed by many churches in Africa, he added.

Finally, he stressed that African states should cooperate with regional and international institutions to exchange information in order to fight against organized crime, believing that cooperation is the answer to such a problem.