Nick Donovan
@nickpdonovan
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Winner of Fetisov Journalism Award. Contact me: donovannick - AT - protonmail - com Find me on Signal: nickpdonovan.01 DMs open. The Sentry. Views own. He/him
Joined March 2009
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Pinned Tweet
How do Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces militia buy the Toyota 4x4s they convert into ‘technicals’ – the basis of their military power?
In this thread
@MohAboelgheit
,
@RichyK37
and I provide an answer:
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Zimbabwe's biggest scandal?
Has Mutapa sovereign wealth fund just paid $1.6bn (5% GDP, more than health & education budgets combined) - to mystery shareholders recently connected to Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a presidential advisor accused of corruption?
#WhoGotPaidWhat
?
🧵1/
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For the record, I've spoken with Ren-Form who
a) say they did have a contract with, and delivered to, ZEC.
b) describe Wicknell Chivayo as their agent, and said yes they paid him.
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Zimbabwe's secret police - the CIO - run businesses involved in hemp, coal mining, solar energy, tourism and golf. In the past they've farmed mushrooms, exported baby elephants & mined diamonds.
🧵on how we did this open source investigation
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On June 3 Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia & police killed 120 pro-democracy protestors. Using leaked documents, today we reveal the financial networks behind the RSF.
#نقاوم_لانساوم
#العداله_الدوليه_للمجزره
#SudanUprising
#نقاوم_لانساوم
THREAD
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Then they don't need a separate bank account.
El Burhan: ‘Rapid Support Forces are an integral part of the Sudanese army’
The Rapid Support Forces constitute an integral part of the Sudanese army, Commander-in-Chief and chairman of the Sovereign Council, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, asserted.
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.
@ZACConline
will you investigate why African Chrome Fields paid $1 million to Mnangagwa’s farm Pricabe Enterprises. & $2 million to Cosmotex, a shell company controlled by a business partner of VP Chiwenga (and Chiwenga’s niece) in 2017/2018 ?
Why did ACF pay $1-million to Pricabe Enterprises, the entity that owns Mnangagwa’s farm, on 5 December 2017?
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Was money from diamonds used to influence votes in Zimbabwe’s 2013 election?
THREAD 1/20
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This good new Amnesty report on the killings of Sudanese protestors last year pins blame on RSF, NISS & police.
We will soon publish on the supply chain of the RSF Toyota pickup trucks - known as 'Thatchers' - showing how & where the RSF bought them.
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I hope Teresa May is as quick to seek a meeting with President Macron as she was with the man-child across the Atlantic.
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South African firm Ren-Form has serious questions to answer about its role in Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) procurement scandal.
New evidence about inflated prices and Chivayo's role as Ren-Form's agent in this 🧵& article with
@MikeMarchant13
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If this Brexit deal we're going to get from Davis is so amazing, why would you worry about Parliamentary approval?
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Zimbabwe: Vice President Chiwenga's 'de facto investment manager' is revealed as involved in a second massive mining deal: this time platinum.
Lishon Chipango is a director of two of Chiwenga's property holding companies, including the firm that owned Chiwenga's mansion. 🧵
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@IanDunt
Brilliant stuff. On one level Brexit has been the making of you. On another i feel a bit sad that you - and all of us activists, commentators and mortals following Brexit closely - have spent so much of our lives on something which is all so unnecessary.
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🧵
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Spincash part 2: If you've just made $120m, paid $1m to President Mnangagwa's farm & $2m to Vice President Chiwenga-linked entity, how do you get $millions out of Zimbabwe?
Full article:
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if anyone overseas wants an insight into how the 'war against woke' is going in the UK, you could do worse than look at the latest shameful depths plumbed by our Home Secretary. (These dolls were pretty widely unacceptable in the 80s btw).
Home Secretary told the Mail online she is "furious" the police intervened on golliwog displays in an Essex pub.
Yet it seems the highly racist landlord had posted Facebook images of the Golliwogs hanging in his pub, writing "they used to hand them in Mississippi years ago"
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Nicely done:
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Zimbabwe, check this out tomorrow. Sir Wicknell, Ren-Form & ZEC
🚨🚨🚨New Open Secrets Radio episode- The Tenderpreneur and the Printing Firm.
Dropping tomorrow, 8 Aug, 11:00 SAST.
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Good article in Economist on
@RichyK37
's,
@MohAboelgheit
's and my investigation for
@Global_Witness
on how the Sudanese RSF militia buy their Toyota technicals:
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I want to point out one extraordinary bit of this investigation by NewsHawks’
@ogagare
, who broke the story.
If true, Sakupwanya, on ZANU’s fundraising cttee & a ZANU candidate, paid US$90k to the impartial chair of the Zimbabwe Election Commission.
Well
@ZECzim
, is it true?
How the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission US$40 million tender deal was cobbled up and who was involved: The full story.
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Zimbabwe: Presidential advisor Kudakwashe Tagwirei's firm Sakunda received US$1.28bn & spent $1bn, when it ran Command Agriculture 2016-19. Some of c.$280m surplus stems from a possibly unlawful Reserve Bank (RBZ) decision. Evidence follows in thread:
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I offer this to my followers as a Brexit / Tory party leadership meme you can borrow.
Meanwhile in Noyabrsk, Siberia.
(Post-Soviet visual)
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You can't be opposed to austerity and in favour of leaving the single market. I'm looking forward to making this point tonight.
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These are the 5 questions to ask:
► What was the price?
► How was the valuation carried out?
► What was the full ownership structure of Kuvimba at the time of payment?
► Who got paid how much?
► What happened to the Treasury Bill after it was issued?
ENDS
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In the last few months, Zimbabwe's public debt has jumped by $3bn from $17.69 bn to $21 bn. Treasury Bills (TBs) equiv of 8% of GDP have been issued says the IMF. Sources say $900m went to RBZ, $1.9bn to Mutapa Investment Fund for 'recapitalisation.'
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Most of Kuvimba's constituent mines - Freda Rebecca, Sandawana, Great Dyke Investments etc- were bought by Tagwirei's firms (Sotic and Landela) in 2019 before their transfer to Kuvimba in 2020 after Tagwirei was sanctioned.
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@akasbohm
@Glitter_brawl
Oh god. Mid 30s: 3 way game of Risk. Sister in law went to bed early so we played her role as best we could. She won, asleep, at 3am.
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Half of that $3bn reportedly consists of a $1.6bn Treasury Bill - taken out to enable Mutapa to pay mystery shareholders for their 35% stake in a mining conglomerate: Kuvimba Mining House. This $1.6bn pricetag was first reported by
@NewsHawksLive
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#Zimbabwe
. If you're interested in why the Moti group was so keen on gagging the South African media
@amaBhungane
here are some of the key questions, source documents, and their answers:
🧵
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Until recently Zim government entities owned 65% of Kuvimba, with 35% owned by "private investors" or "management". In 2021
@TheSentry_Org
revealed that the 35% was owned by Ziwa and Pfimbi Resources - with Pfimbi in turn part-owned by the Kudakwashe Tagwirei Trust.
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When we (and, earlier,
@NewsHawksLive
) reported that Mutapa had spent US $1.6bn on paying mystery shareholders of Kuvimba (likely linked to Tagwirei, President Mnangagwa’s close ally), some said it wasn’t $1.6bn. Today:
Zimbabwe's biggest scandal?
Has Mutapa sovereign wealth fund just paid $1.6bn (5% GDP, more than health & education budgets combined) - to mystery shareholders recently connected to Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a presidential advisor accused of corruption?
#WhoGotPaidWhat
?
🧵1/
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@erineedwards
@JvdRieth
@MooseAllain
@markslade71
@lashbear_au
@Leah_Scarpati
At the butchers my wife got into a conversation about her taste for marrow. "I just love banging out the marrow" she said, miming the action.
It's now a catchphrase. They can't stop themselves bringing it up every time she goes there.
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Once we leave single market this will also happen in reverse. Importing EU firms will look at paperwork for UK exports, and buy elsewhere.
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Time for another "humble address for a return"
@Keir_Starmer
?
Even the PM’s most senior colleagues aren’t trusted enough to see the Treasury’s cost-benefit analysis of different Brexit scenarios. So how can they decide which trade deal to negotiate?
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@tdubey
@SpinningHugo
@BibimbapNom
There are other non-collapsing water companies which also had their prices regulated.
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Sotic demonstrated that Tagwirei isn't averse to using proxy directors and nominee shareholders to hide his involvement.
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Given the missing corporate records and secrecy, there's a chance we have got this wrong. But whether Mutapa's first major decision was to pay up to $1.6bn of public money to 'management', 'private investors' or Tagwirei, Zimbabwean citizens deserve to know
#WhoGotPaidWhat
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That's not all. It is possible that Mutapa overpaid. If the pricetag of $1.6bn for 35% of Kuvimba is true, that values 100% at $4.6bn. But in Jan 2022, the government valued Kuvimba at just $1.5bn. What has changed in 18 months to justify a tripling in value?
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THREAD: In The Times today: How Mudalal Khouri and his network helped the Syrian war effort (£) - thanks
@RichardJSpencer
.
Thread below explains more, from investigations published by
@Global_Witness
and
@OCCRP
today.
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One of the only reassuring things about watching my father die over days in a (lovely, pre Covid19, in Jan) nursing home, was knowing he was calm and not in pain. It's not just pain control, it's also anti-vomiting & anti-distress drugs that make modern death far more bearable.
NEW/EXC - deeply shocking story. GPs are STILL begging Home Sec
@patel4witham
to relax 'Shipman' rules on prescriptions that mean people are dying at home with
#CoronaVirus
facing “significant and unnecessary distress and pain” 1/Thread
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In 2023/24 when Mutapa paid for the 35%, we can't be sure who owned the shares (& got the $1.6bn) - because records for Kuvimba & Ziwa are missing from the corporate registry - a red flag. Kuvimba & Tagwirei deny any link, & Mutapa and Kuvimba decline to say
#WhoGotPaidWhat
.
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Ziwa's involvement was acknowledged by Kuvimba in 2021. Leaked Ziwa corporate records showed the involvement of Tagwirei's Pfimbi Resources. So in 2021 Tagwirei was involved in Kuvimba, but what about now...?
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Mutapa is meant to grow wealth for Zim's citizens. Was one of its first decisions to transfer wealth from the many to the few?
More debt also means Zim's much-needed debt clearance programme is more complicated. More debt=bigger haircuts for existing creditors.
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The Auditor General and Public Accounts Committee should investigate these valuations to see what has changed at Kuvimba to justify whether Mutapa (i.e. Zim citizens) got value for money.
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Moreover, the total amount Tagwirei paid for those mines in 2019 is a figure in the low hundreds of millions of US dollars.
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@Zeddary
Check out our Global Witness investigation linking likely corrupt $ from Congo (Brazzaville) presidential family in another Trump property. Different building, similar story.
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Apparently genuine bank documents leaked to satirical Sudanese Facebook page Al Bashoum name another company with a close financial relationship to the RSF: Tradive General Trading LLC, based in the UAE.
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For St Patrick's Day I shall now rename Shell's worst corruption scandal O'PL245.
Shell is changing its name for International Women’s Day, adding an apostrophe and becoming “She’ll” for a day
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But we spoke to business people who dealt with Kuvimba: they said Tagwirei made the big decisions at Kuvimba as recently as Sept 2023 - just before Mutapa's purchase of the 35% shares from 'private investors'.
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I wear
#MyPoppy
to remember great grandparents and those from RE 33 & 101 lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
@PoppyLegion
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...and (slightly fuzzy) leaked bank documents reveal where the Rapid Support Forces keep their bank account.
Remember: independent finances = independent militias. Read on...
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Zimbabwe’s natural resources should be owned by its people. Money from diamonds could have gone to pay for nurses or schools. Instead it looks likely that diamond money was used by a political party to win elections, and the Zimbabwean people footed the bill.
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If the $1.6bn pricetag is true, it's huge - 5% of GDP. There may be better ways for a sovereign wealth fund to create wealth? E.g. expanding Zim's electrical grid is estimated to cost $4.4bn by 2030. (Mutapa controls ZESA).
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So it seems that the valuation of the mines in Kuvimba's portfolio have jumped from under $500 million in 2019, to $2bn in 2021, back down to $1.5bn in 2022, and now - if the reported price of $1.6bn for 35% is correct - back up to $4.6bn.
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(To explain: In 2021 GOZ allocated 12.5% of Kuvimba to former farmers, valuing that stake at $250m, and therefore Kuvimba as a whole at $2bn. In 2022, GOZ announced that the 5% of Kuvimba allocated to compensate pensioners at $75m, valuing Kuvimba at $1.5bn)
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"You wanna fight with us, and pick a fight with us with that type of Tom [cash]? I don’t know about that"
A reminder of unequal legal battle between the Moti group &investigative nonprofit
@amaBhungane
- is Zunaid Moti hinting at using $$$ to defeat, even bankrupt
@amaBhungane
?
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What's changed? Gold prices are⬆️ but lithium / platinum are ⬇️; Freda Rebecca is doing well, but Bindura Nickel is loss making, despite big hopes GDI is just a hole in the ground for now & many of Kuvimba's mines are still dormant. Kuvimba's fortunes have been mixed.
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Look at this video of the security forces arriving on the night before the massacre. We've tracked down where the RSF bought almost 1,000 similar Toyota pick-up trucks...
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June 3rd was the last day of Ramadan. Protesters were looking forward to celebrating Eid with their families.
But in the early hours of that morning, the power went out and rumours began to spread from phone to phone.
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Hemedti & his family sit at the apex of a 'paramilitary-industrial complex'. On one side of the triangle, a militia with limited formal military, let alone civilian, oversight. On the other, great wealth from gold. He is likely a threat to any democratic transition in Sudan.
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We're boxed into a hard Brexit. EU drew two side of the square. Teresa May completed our entrapment with her conference speech on ECJ & FOM.
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When I was a civil servant government would puzzle, plan and work even to eke out an extra 0.001% of growth. This is carnivalesque: economics where down is the new up.
We’ve announced £2.1bn to prepare for No Deal. Funding will accelerate preparations at the border, support business readiness and ensure the supply of critical medicines.
Read more:
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Tricky considering Hemedti is *named* in the application for an arrest warrant for Bashir by the Prosecutor of the ICC - in the context of being an instrument through which the crimes against humanity were carried out.
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I love Britain.
Personally, I think the bloke shouting "what about the cheesemakers?" at
@JulianAssange
captured the theatre of the absurd beautifully
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Zimbabwe remember ZEC denied their supplier had links to Wicknell? Hear
@OpenSecretsZA
’s Mamello Mosiana &
@MikeMarchant13
interview
@NewsHawksLive
’s
@ogagare
& dig into SA firm REN-Form’s alleged role in the scandal. Incl audio of Ren-Form admitting to me Wicknell was its agent.
🎙️ The Tenderpreneur and the Printing Firm: Wicknell Chivayo and Ren-form.
In this episode of Open Secrets Radio, we dive deep into Zimbabwe’s latest corruption scandal involving the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Listen here:
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New Zimbabwe report into Sotic International, Tagwirei's Mauritius front company, jointly between
@TheSentry_Org
and
@OpenSecretsZA
.
But why is Sotic important?
Tl;dr This was not a normal firm.
🧵
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I agree with Peter Mandelson and
@paulmasonnews
that we should stay in the single market via EEA/EFTA.
Mandelson clashes w his frontbench, saying UK wld be "large influential members in EEA" if stayed in single market
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It began with a mistake by Zim's ex spy boss (first noticed by Global Witness). At a 2017 parliamentary hearing into diamond firms, Kusena and Sino Zim, he left his briefing papers on display, showing the name of a CIO holding company, Chapel Mining.
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We obtained a recent corporate registry document listing Hemedti as a director of Al Gunade, a gold & construction firm. The firm denies this, saying corporate records haven't been updated. Al Gunade also denies any link to the RSF.
5/
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Rightly no one feels sorry for them but there is hidden cost of autocracy: the waste of time and talent of apparatchiks writing puff pieces, magistrates making BS rulings, intelligence agents following innocent people. What a huge waste of everyone’s time on this planet.
More personalisation of Herald
“First Family’s farming excellence impresses Sadc delegates”
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1/ Thread on Labour, single market, state aid rules and nationalisation. cc
@laboursinglemkt
Full argument here:
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You can read more about the Al Gunade - RSF relationship in this excellent Reuters report by
@mahaeldahan
,
@MichaelGeorgy1
and Khaled Abdelaziz.
8/
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Special thanks to all my colleagues at GW and to the brilliant Sasha Wales-Smith for her investigative nous and persistence.
@SashaWalesSmith
ENDS
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@MooseAllain
@weetabix
I still maintain that weetabix is the most absorbent material known to humankind, useful for window condensation, plumbing leaks and, just possibly, rising sea levels near Madrid.
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It is time for Labour party members to influence Brexit, so UK stays as *member* of Single Market (not just 'access to'). Draft motion:
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Anyway my thanks to a great team
@Global_Witness
, and here's looking forward to part 2, published shortly. I hope that Sudanese civilians can use this info to exercise financial & strategic control over all armed factions in order to transition to democracy peacefully.
/ENDS
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.
@OwenJones84
DUP in coalition also ends UK Gov's crucial role as broker of peace in NI. Real long term threat to Union is a partisan UKGov.
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ZEC bought biometric verification (BVR) kits from Ren-Form for $16,000 per unit. Similar kits cost Honduras $3,600 each. Leaked docs indicate Ren Form first quoted ZEC $4,998 each, then $9,996, then finally invoiced for $15,759 for 250 kits. Evidence follows...
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However, Al Gunade is owned by Hemedti's brother - Abdul Rahim Hamdan Daglo, who is himself deputy leader of the RSF - and Abdul Rahim's two sons.
This guy (from 0.28 secs):
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New mini-investigation 🧵
In 2023
@NewsHawksLive
broke the story that Zimbabwe intel (CIO) boss Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi set up Forever Associates Zimbabwe to help ZANU win elections.
FAZ & Tapfumaneyi deny the link. We reveal the FAZ trustees...
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#Zimbabwe
- an interesting example from Kenya. After public outcry, a new presidential commission has just been appointed to :
- verify how much debt there is
- assess whether Kenya got value for money
- etc
Mutapa - Kuvimba:
#WhoGotPaidWhat
?
The Presidential Taskforce for a forensic audit of Kenya's public debt has been constituted:
—Chairperson: Nancy Onyango
—Vice-Chairperson: Luis G. Franceschi (Prof)
Members:
—CPA Philip Kaikai - ICPAK Chair
—Faith Odhiambo - LSK President
—Shammah Kiteme (Eng.) - IEK President
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Curious that our Brexit strategy depends upon EU countries behaving economically rationally, when we ourselves are not.
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We can reveal that Hafez Makhlouf, Assad's cousin, and former head of one of the feared branches of the Syrian secret police, owns apartments & offices in a prestigious Moscow skyscraper complex.
#Russia
(Hafez Makhlouf's image courtesy of ICIJ.)
2/
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In part 2 of the investigation by
@RichyK37
and
@MohAboelgheit
and myself (and on geolocation - whizz
@john_marquee
) we'll describe more about the network which procured 1,000 vehicles, seemingly for the RSF, and provide further info for the
#OSINT
community to follow up.
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By pulling the company records Chapel Mining, Kusena & the Sino Zim network of firms, we got a list of company directors linked to the CIO (AKA President's Dept) in the past, including Lovemore Mafurirano - a director of Sino Zim Diamonds:
3/
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Thirty years ago, right about now, Margaret Thatcher realised she had to resign. A declassified memo by Andrew Turnbull, her PPS at the time, released earlier this year (and largely overlooked because of the pandemic) tells the story.
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SADC leaders will be flying in, landing at a crime scene, then driving to the summit, no doubt escorted by members of the same security force that tortured Robson Chere.
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When I phoned Terrestrial the firm denied any link to the CIO. You can read the source material here & make up your own mind. Shona & Ndebele available shortly:
CC:
@Zimindependent
,
@daddyhope
,
@zimlive
,
@NewsDayZimbabwe
,
@NewsHawksLive
ENDS
0
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Chinese Co to bail out 1MDB. One reason my idea that intl corruption tribunal for 1MDB seems unlikely....alas.
Our latest story is now online.
@jho_low
's price for selling out Malaysia to China via east coast rail project
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Blood, sand and gold: victor’s city rises from ashes of Sudan’s civil war
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This is important because the RSF's military power (the other side of the triangle on top of which sits Hemedti) depends on the speed & mobility of their 'technicals' - converted pick-up trucks with mounted machineguns or AA weapons.
14/
(Source: RSF Facebook, 31 July 2014)
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In an apparently genuine leaked RSF spreadsheet we also found references to two payments to (or on behalf of) Al Gunade. An Al Gunade spokesperson said these represented normal commercial relationships.
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Your Sunday reminder that
#Brexit
is like a bad tattoo. Costly, painful & difficult to reverse.
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