Feral Jundi

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Company Spotlight: Mountain Men Security–A Crime Fighting, Man Tracking PSC

Filed under: Africa,Company Spotlight,South Africa — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 6:58 PM

The development of Mountain Men’s Special Response Team (SRT) was as a result of an increase in home invasions, armed robberies and violent crime. Our SRT members are all trained man trackers and have the ability to track suspects who flee a crime scene. This is very helpful in areas where there are vast tracts of land, mountainous terrain and forests or green belts. These members have made a huge dent in criminal operations in the areas where they have been deployed. Together with specialized units of the South African Police Service, we have arrested armed robbers, wanted suspects, house breakers and recovered hundreds of thousands of rands worth of stolen property.
Our Armed Response Units and Protection Services Units all interact with our SRT members which makes us a formidable force in the fight against crime. We have made in excess of 2 640 arrests over the past 12 years, averaging 18 arrests per month for serious crimes.

The other day I was perusing Facebook and checking out some news with some of my readers and friends. One reader’s page I like to check out from time to time is David Scott-Donelan’s. He posted a picture from a trip to South Africa awhile back and talked about a private security company that he helped train in tactical tracking. That company is Mountain Men Security, and what they have done with that training is truly amazing.

Basically this company is providing a security service and a tracking service in conjunction with the South African Police. They are working together in a public/private partnership, and MMS’s is providing the hunters.

These hunters are called the SRT or special response team, and they are using the skills David taught them to track down criminals.  In the video below, you get a sample of what they are doing. I thought this was awesome, and this company deserves to be in my ‘company spotlight’ category.

In the past I discussed the value of tracking to security contractors, military and police. Groups like Koevoet or the Selous Scouts made great use of tracking to locate criminals or enemies. You hear of military or police forces using these skills from time to time, but a private security company using these skills is just rare and very cool. It is also producing results and making their services valuable to the local community.

So bravo to Mountain Men Security for making those skills work for them. Best of all, you can see their arrests made on the front of the website. The community they are protecting can actually see the value, and know that if a criminal is on the loose, these guys will soon be hunting them down. –Matt

 

The Scott-Donelan Tracking School website here.

Mountain Men Security website here.

 

The history of Mountain Men Security

In 1998 former South African Police Force Murder and Robbery detective, Allan Dillon, retired police officer, Patrick Freeman, and friend, Billy Bownes, began conducting neighbourhood crime prevention duties in the Lakeside area in their spare time as a result of an increase in criminal activities in the Lakeside area. With their combined police experience and good knowledge of the area, criminals were being apprehended whilst breaking into houses and motor vehicles and soon the community were calling the three crime fighters “The Mountain Men”.
This subsequently led to the formation of a security company which has grown from three persons patrolling Lakeside on bicycles and conducting observation duties from the mountain above Lakeside to a structured security company with 70 plus employees, a 24 hour control room which monitors alarm systems, dispatches our own armed response vehicles, monitors CCTV live and on event activations, as well as interfaces between SAPS, Metro Police, National Parks Board, Neighbourhood watches and members of the public.
As the face of crime continued to change in South Africa so did our approach to protecting our community and clients. We soon realized that an armed response service on its own is a reactive service and is in fact your last line of defence, not your first. We implemented crime fighting strategies and relooked at the way in which crime was being fought in our areas of operation.
The development of Mountain Men’s Special Response Team (SRT) was as a result of an increase in home invasions, armed robberies and violent crime. Our SRT members are all trained man trackers and have the ability to track suspects who flee a crime scene. This is very helpful in areas where there are vast tracts of land, mountainous terrain and forests or green belts. These members have made a huge dent in criminal operations in the areas where they have been deployed. Together with specialized units of the South African Police Service, we have arrested armed robbers, wanted suspects, house breakers and recovered hundreds of thousands of rands worth of stolen property.
Our Armed Response Units and Protection Services Units all interact with our SRT members which makes us a formidable force in the fight against crime. We have made in excess of 2 640 arrests over the past 12 years, averaging 18 arrests per month for serious crimes.
Our K9 Unit with a tracking dog has given us great results and has leveraged our manpower in the fight against crime. Presently we are expanding this unit.
As we move forward into the future we continue to embrace technology and raise the standard of training of our officers. We continue to offer our clients and the communities where we work an innovative and results based security service. TODAY, AN ARMED RESPONSE SERVICE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY.
Company website here.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Industry Talk: Shell Spent Close To $1 Billion On Worldwide Security Between 2007-2009!

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk,Nigeria — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 11:35 AM

But the scale of Shell’s spending, revealed by the data for the first time, raises questions about the effectiveness of its security policies. “What is striking about the amount being spent in Nigeria is its ineffectiveness,” said Amunwa. “Shell spent many millions of dollars each year on government forces who failed to provide the company with adequate security.”
Nkabari said: “Shell cannot call this spending ‘security’. If it was really providing security, then why do we continue to have vandalisation, why do we have bunkering [theft of oil], why do we have the security mess that we have in the Niger delta? They give protection to the oil workers but they are not providing the region with ‘security’.”

It does raise the question as to how effective this has been in actually creating security? Either way, this is a stunning amount of money that Shell has dished out for security, and especially in Nigeria.

One thing about Nigeria is that it is filled with corrupt leaders in the military and government. Leaders that played both sides in the conflict there for economic gain. Meaning, they can get money by attacking the pipelines and stealing oil, and they can make money by protecting the pipelines. So they can just keep the money machine going by attacking through proxies, and protecting with the military. And meanwhile, Shell throws millions of dollars into that machine.

On the other hand, Shell is doing the numbers and doing the cost benefit analysis of all actions. So even if they are feeding this corrupt machine, at the end of the day, they are able to make a profit. Not only that, but the people have a say in this stuff too, and if they do not support the effort because of whatever reason, then they will lend their support to forces like MEND (or ideas like MEND, because everyone acted under it’s banner to steal from Shell)

This stuff is extremely interesting to me because companies like Shell or Exxon Mobil are going into war zones or non-permissive environments throughout the world, and setting up operations. And in one year, they could go from working with a somewhat stable government to being in the middle of political turmoil, rebellion (arab spring), war, or some insurgency. They have to make incredibly tough decisions at all levels of involvement, and they have to be good at predicting what’s next.

So like a small country, they need a security/defense apparatus, and they need an intelligence apparatus in order to create and implement strategies wherever they are at. When Shell had the ‘third highest security budget in Africa‘, that is pretty significant. I wonder how the other companies compare?

Interesting stuff, and our industry and it’s lessons learned over the last ten years of war will be absolutely crucial to the resource extraction world–now and into the future… –Matt

 

Wearing an orange vest with camouflage?…

 

Shell spending millions of dollars on security in Nigeria, leaked data shows
Internal documents reveal oil company spent $383m over three years protecting staff and installations in Niger delta region
By Afua Hirsch and John Vidal
Sunday 19 August 2012
If it were a country Shell would have the third highest security budget in Africa.
Shell is paying Nigerian security forces tens of millions of dollars a year to guard their installations and staff in the Niger delta, according to leaked internal financial data seen by the Guardian. The oil giant also maintains a 1,200-strong internal police force in Nigeria, plus a network of plainclothes informants.
According to the data, the world’s largest company by revenue spent nearly $1bn on worldwide security between 2007-09: if it were a country Shell would have the third highest security budget in Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria itself.
The documents show that nearly 40% of Shell’s total security expenditure over the three year period – $383m (£244m) – was spent on protecting its staff and installations in Nigeria’s volatile Niger delta region. In 2009, $65m was spent on Nigerian government forces and $75m on “other” security costs – believed to be a mixture of private security firms and payments to individuals.
Activists expressed concern that the escalating cost of Shell’s security operation in the delta was further destabilising the oil rich region and helping to fuel rampant corruption and criminality. “The scale of Shell’s global security expenditure is colossal,” said Ben Amunwa of London-based oil watchdog Platform. “It is staggering that Shell transferred $65m of company funds and resources into the hands of soldiers and police known for routine human rights abuses.”

(more…)

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Al Qaeda: Boko Haram, Al Shabaab And AQIM Are Linking Up

Filed under: Africa,Al Qaeda,Libya,Mali,Nigeria,Somalia — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 2:59 AM

“It’s one of the main depots of the Malian army,” a security source told AFP, adding that it had been built in case of “a long and difficult war.”A regional security source confirmed the seizure, saying the vast cache of weapons will “really boost AQIM’s striking power”, and adding: “It is really impressive what AQIM has found in the underground depot.”The source said the group “is today more armed than the combined armies of Mali and Burkina Faso”, Mali’s neighbour to the east.

This to me is fascinating and startling at the same time. Look at how fast these Islamist groups are spreading in Africa? They are taking advantage of the leadership vacuum caused by the Arab Spring, or making their moves in really poor and poorly governed countries. Where there is darkness on the continent, they are moving in to set up shop.

They are also capturing some pretty significant weapons and using this stuff to gain ground throughout the region. From the stuff in Libya that was ‘liberated’ during that fighting, to weapons depots in Mali that were taken by force.

And what gets me here is that I still haven’t heard what exactly Ansar Dine was able to get out of this weapon depot in Gao, Mali. Apparently they are now ‘more armed than the combined armies of Mali and Burkina Faso’, says the quote up top. So these non-state actors are now more armed than several countries combined? Yikes, and that is quite the accomplishment….It also makes you wonder about places like Syria, where that country is imploding and weapons depots–to include chemical and bio, could potentially be compromised.

Not only that, but now that the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of Egypt, whose to say that some of their weapons wouldn’t slip out into the world and find their way into Islamist’ hands? Or directly given to Islamists by a government that openly supports them. pfffftt.

We will see how it goes and somehow I don’t think this fire in the Middle East or Africa is going out any time soon. –Matt

 

Captured armored vehicle in Mali.

 

African extremist groups linking up: U.S. general
June 25, 2012
By Lauren French
Three of Africa’s largest extremist groups are sharing funds and swapping explosives in what could signal a dangerous escalation of security threats on the continent, the commander of the U.S. military’s Africa Command said on Monday.
General Carter Ham said there are indications that Boko Haram, al Shabaab and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb – groups that he labeled as the continent’s most violent – are sharing money and explosive materials while training fighters together.
“Each of those three organizations is by itself a dangerous and worrisome threat,” Ham said at an African Center for Strategic Studies seminar for senior military and civilian officials from Africa, the United States and Europe.
“What really concerns me is the indications that the three organizations are seeking to coordinate and synchronize their efforts,” Ham said. “That is a real problem for us and for African security in general.”
The United States classified three of the alleged leaders of the Islamist sect Boko Haram, based in remote northeast Nigeria, as “foreign terrorist,” on June 20. But it declined to blacklist the entire organization to avoid elevating the group’s profile internationally. Police in Nigeria said members of the group seized a prison there Sunday and freed 40 inmates.

(more…)

Monday, May 14, 2012

Somalia: MPRI In The News–US Trains African Soldiers For Somalia Mission

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk,Somalia — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:11 PM

This is a cool little article that mentioned the work that MPRI is doing currently in Africa as part of the ACOTA program. It just shows how important companies like this, or Bancroft Global, Dyncorp, Halliday Finch or Sterling Corporate Services are to the task of trying to stabilize Somalia. –Matt

 

U.S. trains African soldiers for Somalia mission
By Craig Whitlock
May 13, 2012
The heart of the Obama administration’s strategy for fighting al-Qaeda militants in Somalia can be found next to a cow pasture here, a thousand miles from the front lines.
Under the gaze of American instructors, gangly Ugandan recruits are taught to carry rifles, dodge roadside bombs and avoid shooting each other by accident. In one obstacle course dubbed “Little Mogadishu,” the Ugandans learn the basics of urban warfare as they patrol a mock city block of tumble-down buildings and rusty shipping containers designed to resemble the battered and dangerous Somali capital.
“Death is Here! No One Leaves,” warns the fake graffiti, which, a little oddly, is spray-painted in English instead of Somali. “GUNS $ BOOMS,” reads another menacing tag.
Despite the warnings, the number of recruits graduating from this boot camp — built with U.S. taxpayer money and staffed by State Department contractors — has increased in recent months. The current class of 3,500 Ugandan soldiers, the biggest since the camp opened five years ago, is preparing to deploy to Somalia to join a growing international force composed entirely of African troops but largely financed by Washington.

(more…)

Monday, April 23, 2012

Maritime Security: Pete Bethune And Team To Battle Illegal Fishing In Africa

Filed under: Africa,Maritime Security — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:49 PM

Bethune says, “I stood on a beach in Mozambique and watched the poachers just off shore. The sheer numbers of illegal longliners and trawlers raping the waters of fish is astounding. The lack of resources available to stop them is frightening – Mozambique has just one vessel to patrol 3000km of coastline. The poachers continue to take millions of tonnes of fish that does not belong to them with no fear of reprisals. They laugh in the face of the law.”-From the Earth Race Conservation website.

Thanks to Fredrik for sending me this. Pete Bethune is famous for being arrested by Japan during anti-whaling operations a couple of years back. Now he is getting into the game of battling poachers on the high seas, who illegally fish in areas off the coast of Africa. Interesting, and we will see how this goes for them.

Also, I have no details on this other than what is in the video below. He does have a website and you can follow along with his team’s efforts in the future. I have no idea if Mozambique is the country they will work out of, or if they have a different place to go.

On a funny side note, he used Captain Morgan rum to christen his new vessel. Captain Morgan rum got it’s name from the famed ‘privateer’ named Sir Henry Morgan, and I thought that was an interesting choice of bottle.  Check it out. –Matt

 

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