Fresh charges against Africa’s biggest telecoms firm, MTN was deposed by the weekend in a Washington D.C. District court alleging that MTN’s actions in Afghanistan and Iran was in breach of American laws, and interests. The law firms filed the new amended complaint, as they alleged MTN’s “conduct targeted the United States”. Insider sources pointed out that some Washington based law firms filed the new amended complaint, on Friday, as they alleged MTN’s “conduct targeted the United States” by executing a strategy reliant on dominating markets in unstable countries not allied with Washington.
The initial lawsuit had eight (8) multinational companies which include MTN, security firm G4S, US infrastructure group Louis Berger and consultancy Janus Global that operated in Afghanistan and Iran between 2009 and 2017. The suit which was filed in December 2019 in the United States District Court in the District of Colombia, alleges that these companies violated the US Anti-Terrorism Act by paying protection money to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
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MTN which is Africa’s largest telecoms company by size and reach operating in far more African countries than any other was said to have aided militant groups in Afghanistan, including paying protection money. This was contained in the amended lawsuit filed on behalf of hundreds of families of US soldiers. MTN also allegedly violated the Anti-Terrorism Act by paying protection money of more than $100 million to al-Qaeda and Taliban so that its cellular towers would not be targeted for destruction. The telecoms firm is accused of deactivating the towers at night, preventing US intelligence operations, and allegation the MTN has however, denied, asking the court to dismiss the original suit.
Read also : https://afrikanheroes.com/2020/01/02/mtn-quits-towers-businesses-in-ghana-and-uganda/
The telecoms giant was also criticized for its activities in Iran’s telecommunication sector. A US-based advocacy, united against nuclear Iran alleged that MTN technology is enabling the Iranian government to locate and track individual cellphone users which it says as a violation of users’ human rights. In 2012 it was alleged that MTN Group may have been complicit in securing American telecommunications technology from sun microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems on behalf of Irancell in violation of trade sanctions against Iran.
This development puts MTN on a very bad spot as this is not the first time it is being alleged to have breached security concerns from a government. It could be recalled that MNT’s Nigerian subsidiary was fined $5.2 billion by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2015 for partial compliance of regulatory guidelines by not disconnecting improperly registered subscribers’ identification module.
Read also : https://afrikanheroes.com/2019/07/30/mtn-gets-mobile-money-licence-in-nigeria/
The compliance audit carried out by NCC on the network showed that 5.2 million customers lines were not deactivated as had been directed and so were fined the sum $1,000 for each unregistered SIM according to the Telephone Subscribers regulation law. The federal government feared that this might have contributed to the security crises in the country. The fine was later reduced to $3.2 billion after pressure and negotiations with the South African government and the telecoms firm.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry