EUC becomes a major connecting dot between African and Middle Eastern nations

Countries in the Middle Eastern and African Regions have had complex relations in terms of various exchanges that have ranged from trade in generic stuff to specialized resources and services like defense equipments. Since the warfare is advancing, so is the change of defense equipments transactions between African and Middle Eastern nations. A major trade that is recently caught in highlights is the End User Certificate (EUC) trade.

The rising instability and the existing embargo war fought in the neighboring region of the Middle East have made it a potential market for supplying EUC for Africa.

As per a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW), three South African newspapers in the past have disclosed a deal with an unnamed Middle Eastern client that reportedly would have been tagged as one of the biggest weapons transaction in South African history. The reports were though shunned in 1997 when published; they proved substantial in 2015 reports.

In July 2015, media reports claimed that a Denel drone was shot down over Yemen. According to arms analyst Nick Waters, the Hodeida bombings share several characteristics with the distinctive 120mm mortar bombs manufactured by Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM), the South African Arms giant.

An enquiry was even raised by the Parliament’s joint standing committee on defense. Radebe was asked to provide a report on South Africa’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia and breaches by Saudi of end-user certificates.

In order to proceed with the enquiry, both RDM and its parent company in Germany were contacted to ­provide images of their 120mm mortar ammunition so that it could be compared with the munitions fragments found in Hodeida. However, there was no response which fueled the speculation of South African arms companies providing End User Certificate (EUC) to Middle Eastern War wagging countries, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The close connection between the South African nation Nigeria and Middle Eastern nation UAE was also proven on various instances, including the most recent one, wherein, President Muhammadu Buhari visited Dubai to participate in the ninth edition of the Annual Investment Meeting as a guest of honor.

Another major event that proved the speculations close to reality is the cyber attack on Italy based firm, Hacking Team. In a recent event, hackers stole and exposed their company digital files and uploaded over 400 GB of data consisting of emails, contracts and financial documents online.

Hacking Team is known for its surveillance tools and hacking services to governments and law enforcement agencies for monitoring on a fee. A list of its confidential clients uploaded on Pastebin, which included Bayelsa state government, Uzbekistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

As per the disclosed information, all these governments at some point of time used Hacking Team services and End User Certificates(EUC) provided by it. Also, reinstating the urge of both the Middle Eastern and South African nations in accruing EUC for offensive use legally and even illegally, making it an important point of understanding between the South African and Middle Eastern nations to achieve common goals perhaps.

Since the embargo war has remained consistent in the Middle East for more than two years, various agencies are now capitalizing on the situation, treating it as a fertile ground for selling and usage of EUC. However, the disclosed EUC trade has already made international community wary; it seems to grow strong in the MENA region.