The 1st quarter of 2013 was particularly volatile in Africa
2013 started with a continuation of the events of the last quarter of 2012 which saw looting in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: the seizure of Goma by the M23 rebels, who came from Rwanda, evoked tsimilar scenes of looting.
March also began with very serious ethnic tensions during the Kenyan elections. This came after the kidnapping of a British citizen at the heart of the business district of Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
Niger, Mali and Cameroon experienced a wave of insecurity, evacuations, kidnapping in the wake of the strike against the narco-jihadist group AQMI, followed by an attack on a BP gas platform in southern Algeria where a number of expatriates were killed.
March ended with the evacuation of about 100 French nationals from Bangui following the looting of the Central African Republic capital by the Seleka rebel coalition.
This past quarter was emblematic of the constant instability and operational risks encountered in Africa. These recurring spikes of violence remind us that the greater part of this continent remains fundamentally dangerous and unstable.
Every new election challenges the current precarious stability (Kenya, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, "Arab spring" in Tunisia, Egypt or Libya with attacks against American interests).
Moreover, the exploitation of new mineral wealth creates regional disparities exacerbating ancient rivalries, ever increasingly insurmountable (Boko Haram in Nigeria, Sudan and South Sudan, Ivory Coast, etc.).
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AGS and ERA in Africa:
• 45 countries
• 56 cities
• 2030 permanent staff
• 924 vehicles
• 214,365 m² warehouse capacity
• 25 years of experience |
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To operate within this instability AGS and ERA (Executive Relocations in Africa) (companies of the Mobilitas group) remain the references on the continent.
Because AGS and ERA are truly present in 45 of the 54 African countries our networks bring unrivalled value and service to our clients and partners.
This expertise, cultural, human and professional, and an indepth knowledge of areas of operation are present in all the services offered in each of the 45 countries, coordinated from Cape Town, South Africa.
The AGS Africa Desk and ERA, known to all our agents and partners for decades, are based in Africa, with African staff and management who come from an African working background. This is completely different from outdated expertise, which is not based on a true operational network on the ground and which would be run from a European capital.
European Offshore centres, far removed from the terrain would oblige one to remotely experience crisis and would impact on the clients by relaying unverified and potentially old information gathered from press agencies.
These “European” African desks would be incapable of acting proactively during a crisis. Whereas our own managers in 45 countries are confronting daily directly many challenges. (All our Managers and staff are 100% on the payroll of the Mobilitas group). Information is provided directly by our teams on the ground as every situation unfolds which contributes to a higher quality of service and the ultimate protection of our clients’ interests and belongings.
AGS and ERA have been present in Africa for more than a quarter of a century where they acquired a unique expertise. The AGS and ERA teams live in Africa surrounded by its reality and are in contact every day with the institutional, public and private stakeholders during these recurring African crises.
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