Page 22 - An Illusion of Complicity: Terrorism and the Illegal Ivory Trade in East Africa

Tom Maguire and Cathy Haenlein 9

The spike in media reporting was pronounced. Only seven of the surveyed stories were published
prior to 2013. Fifty-five were published that year – and 80 per cent of those in the two months
following Westgate. Ten of these concluded that Al-Shabaab had used ivory specifically to
fund the attack.

These narratives have since become self-perpetuating. High-profile outlets have disseminated
the arguments largely uncontested, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street
Journal, New Yorker, Financial Times and The Economist. Yet stories are often based on unclear
evidence, circular reporting and flawed logic.22

Indeed, across this coverage, varied explanations have emerged for Al-Shabaab’s engagement
with the ivory trade. These include the Somali heritage of an allegedly increasing number of
poaching gangs; growing pressure from law-enforcement agencies in Kenyan ports displacing
ivory trafficking to Somalia; and Al-Shabaab’s loss of the strategically vital port of Kismaayo and
consequent need to diversify into ivory.

At the heart of all of these accounts is the claim that the group has been selling ivory out of
Somali ports. This remains constant whether ivory is reported to be acquired through active
poaching or through purchase from Kenyan poachers or brokers. Whichever variant of the story
is proffered, the EAL report’s footprint is clear. Over 40 per cent of the articles surveyed quote
the report as their only source.

The lack of clarity extends to the figures involved.23 The majority of articles addressing this posit
monthly ivory revenues of $200,000–$600,000, as the EAL asserts. Some claim $400,000. Other
reports put Al-Shabaab’s earnings in the billions: the Daily Mirror claims $4.5 billion, and the
Guardian claims $19 billion for a range of ‘terrorist groups’.24 Despite these variations, these
figures have influenced a number of politicians.

22. See, for example, Philip Mansbridge, ‘Blood on Your Hands, China: The Link Between Ivory
Consumption and Al Shabaab’, Huffington Post UK, 25 September 2013; Andy Lines, ‘Nairobi Attack
“Funded by Rhino and Elephant Poaching”’, Daily Mirror, 26 September 2013; Catrina Stewart,
‘Illegal Ivory Trade Funds Al-Shabaab’s Terrorist Attacks’, Independent, 6 October 2013. For the
EAL’s post-Westgate op-eds to reinforce this interpretation, see Laurel Neme, Andrea Crosta
and Nir Calron, ‘Al Shabaab and the Human Toll of the Illegal Ivory Trade’, National Geographic,
3 October 2013; Laurel Neme, Andrea Crosta and NirCalron, ‘Terrorism and the Ivory Trade’, LA
Times, 14 October 2013.

23. For an estimate of ‘almost half of all funding for Shabab’s terrorist activities’, see the former
special assistant to defense secretaries Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel in Monica Medina, ‘The
White Gold of Jihad’, New York Times, 30 September 2013.

24. Tom Parry, ‘The Elephant Slayer: Butchery of Poacher Who Killed More than SEVENTY Elephants
and Inadvertently Helped Terrorism’, Mirror, 5 June 2014 Brandon Keim and Emma Howard,
‘African “Blood Ivory” Destroyed in New York to Signal Crackdown on Illegal Trade’, Guardian, 19
June 2015; Nellemann et al., The Environmental Crime Crisis, p. 13.