Berlin/Accra — Anti-corruption treaties are the key to getting back monies stolen from African countries, such as an estimated $10 billion embezzled by former presidents Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Sanni Abacha in Nigeria, according to a high-level West Africa Regional workshop organised by Transparency International (TI), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the South African Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
The African Union and United Nations anti-corruption conventions can protect an African nation's assets from theft by "kleptocrats" only if West African governments move quicker to ratify and implement them, concluded the workshop, which ended today. Africa's future development depends on ending the "main drain" of capital siphoned off to European and other foreign banks.
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