SUMATRA - An EU directive is set to ban the import of palm oil for use as biodiesel. In the meantime, diesel will continue to be made from oil from plantations that have replaced virgin forest. A good example is provided by ENI and TotalEnergies in Indonesia.
LUSAKA - Zambia is blessed with abundant natural resources, coupled with its strategic geographical location as a landlocked nation in the southern part of Africa. Since its inception, Zambia has been largely dependent on copper and other minerals. Copper production has been a major contributor to ...
NAYPYIDAW - This is a story that describes the downfall of the financial sector of Myanmar after the military coup in February 2021. Due to a history of nationalisations and demonetisations, people and businesses lost trust in the banks immediately after the coup. That resulted in a bankrun.
NAIROBI - Kenya's attorney general's office opened a corruption and fraud investigation in 2019. The dams were supposed to bring water and electricity. Nothing is left at the site.
GOMA - Through the beautiful green hills of North Kivu, a 150-kilometre road winds from the capital Goma to the coltan and cassiterite mining area, road 529. Since 2002, efforts have been made to rehabilitate the road, which runs through one of the most dangerous areas in the world.
KYIV - From the time it regained its independence in 1991 until the start of the war in the east, Ukraine remained one of the world's top ten arms exporters. However, not all transactions were legal. Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens have repeatedly been accused of international arms smuggling. Is ...
Unregulated extractivism by French-British company Perenco
EL FAOUAR - Despite being owned by one of France's richest families, the Perrodos, the Franco-British company Perenco has a long history of secrecy and discretion.
The Great Gas Illusion: Tracing The Billions Behind Mozambique Gas Projects
MAPUTO - The promise of transformative wealth from natural gas has seduced Mozambicans for more than a decade. But as the projects led by TotalEnergies and Eni have started construction, revenues to the country look likely to fall significantly short of expectations.
TRIPOLI - Before his death, Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi moved a giant fortune out of the country. It is gold, diamonds and cash worth billions of dollars – financed with revenues from the sale of oil. Although the international community has committed to returning assets stolen from autocrats ...
CAIRO - After Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected president in May 2014, several amendments were made to the public procurement law that allowed the Egyptian military to further tighten its grip on the economy. The amendments helped army-affiliated companies reap the lion's share of major public ...
KAMPALA - This transnational three-part investigation looks at agricultural biotechnologies, better known as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) from the African perspective using Burkina Faso, South Africa and Uganda as case studies.
How Khat Smuggling to Somalia is Costing Kenya Millions
NAIROBI / MOGADISHU - Khat, also known as Miraa, is being smuggled openly in the coastal town of Lamu in Kenya. This has been exacerbated by the ban on Miraa exports to Somalia in 2020, following a diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
Garbage Out, Garbage In: How Europe’s e-waste problem is a burden on Africa
ACCRA, GHANA - This investigation puts the spotlight on the dumping of e-waste, particularly discarded colling appliances by Europe’s e-waste exporters in Africa in contravention of EU’s law and the Basel Convention while port officials in Europe turn a blind eye to the shipment of these discarded ...
LUXEMBOURG - Migrants are victims of mistreatment and exploitation by their relatives and friends in the heart of Europe. This story shows how in Luxembourg some of the poorest migrants face injustice which needs to be exposed and addressed.
CALABRIA - This two-part series, based on two years of research by reporters from IrpiMedia and OCCRP, explores how the 'Ndrangheta's network operates.
Hezbollah in Africa: Forgotten link in cocaine trafficking to Antwerp and Rotterdam
YAMOUSSOUKRO - The money that European nightlife spends for its favorite drug finances Hezbollah's wars on the side of Iran. An insider from the Lebanese community in Ivory Coast, one of the new cocaine hubs in West Africa, speaks and paints a chilling picture that spans half the globe, from the ...
LUBUMBASHI / KOLWEZI / BERLIN - Manufacturers need cobalt to make batteries for electric cars. This documentary reveals the European car industry's efforts to establish proper supply chains and exposes the reality of cobalt mining in the Congo.
The myth of EU migration policy against criminal networks
SERREKUNDA - Irregular migration from West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands has risen from 2,700 boat refugees in 2019 to over 23,000 in 2020. This has caused a great deal of social and political concern.
ANKARA - Turkey has been using its vast presence in Europe and official institutions such as mosques, consulates and institutions in an effort to track its dissidents using covert Turkish intelligence activities.
THE HAGUE - The Netherlands is an important financial centre behind the international arms trade. Research from The Investigative Desk (the Netherlands) and an Indian news outlet shows how some of the biggest arms companies in the world use the Netherlands as an intermediary to wire profits to tax ...
Syrians pay tax to rebuild after war but see little benefit
DAMASCUS - The Syrian government has raised billions of Syrian pounds to rebuild war-stricken cities through a "reconstruction tax." But where does the money really go? A joint investigation by OCCRP, SIRAJ, and Finance Uncovered, supported by Journalismfund's Money Trail grant programme.
How China's Peanut Appetite is Crushing Senegal's Groundnut Oil Industry
PARIS / DAKAR - Over the last decade, the Chinese appetite for peanuts has turned them into the new 'gold' of Senegal. The two countries signed an agreement in 2014, after which China became the leading importer of Senegalese peanuts.
How the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons is fueling conflicts in West Africa
ACCRA, ABUJA - This story puts the spotlight on a clandestine network of gunsmiths and arms traffickers operating in West Africa in contravention of local laws. It shows how these gunsmiths and traffickers exploit the porous borders across the West Africa and Sahel region to traffic illicit small ...
How Scorpions and Ghostbusters Fight Corruption in Sierra Leone’s Education Sector
FREETOWN - Sierra Leone is one of the least developed countries in the world. Two of the main out of many challenges the West African state is facing are rampant corruption and some of the lowest educational outcomes worldwide.
STOCKHOLM - In Sweden there are more than 200,000 Syrians. They are considered to be the largest immigrant Arabic-speaking community in that country. The Swedish tourist bureaus provide services to transport a large number of Syrians to their home countries.
KUMTOR-BRUSSELS - A two-part investigation unveiled how European taxpayers and consumers have unintentionally contributed to unlawful and environmentally dangerous gold extraction at Kumtor (Kyrgyzstan), the world's largest open-pit ice-mining site.
Russia secretly upgraded Libyan fighter jets prior to peace deal
ENGHAZI - Fighter jets commanded by the Libyan military general Khalifa Haftar were secretly upgraded and serviced using parts shipped in by Russia over 2019 and 2020, violating the existing UN arms embargo, according to security sources with knowledge of the operations.