Investigate stories

Financial support for Nigerian women shea butter producers

January 2023

Women producing shea butter live for the most in very precarious situations. Nigeria, one of the largest shea nut producers in the world, is no exception: to the extent that the quality and quantity of the product are affected by the conditions of production. As a result, Denmark, which is one of the main exporters of West African shea butter, invested several million Euros in 2019 in a program to develop production and make the most of the vast lands used in the country for this purpose. The 4-years project was however terminated well before its original end date and seems to have had a limited impact.

The investigative group who wrote this story was formed of journalists from Denmark, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. They looked at the reasons behind the abrupt termination of the Denmark program in 2020 as well as its effective results. Their story also questions the social impact of Denmark’s financial aids in the shea sector in Nigeria and Burkina, which have been accused of encouraging child labour and facilitating modern slavery.

Click here or here to read the story in English, and here in French. This investigation was led by Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Nelly Kalu and supported by the Journalism Fund.

Profiting from rebellion: Inside ‘blood timber’ traffickers network in Gambia

April 2022

Trafficking of timber is a multi-million dollar business that sustains a rebellion in Casamance, southern Senegal. But the rebels have accessories in Senegal's peaceful, sisterly neighbour, The Gambia. In this investigation, Malagen exposes how a band of smugglers and business people in the Gambia, some of them politically connected, continue to profit from the illicit trade in what has become known as ‘blood timber’. The government is complicit. At the expense of lives and livelihoods, the presidency and environment ministry often waive the rules and authorise the illegal export of timber in the name of ‘maximising revenue’ for the government.

Undertaken by Mustapha K. Darboe, Mariama Thiam and with the collaboration of Dimitri Zufferey, this investigation resulted in the publication of three stories. Read them in English here and in French here and here.

June 2022 Update

This in-depth cross-border investigation received public attention and put the local authorities under scrutiny. In June 2022, a UN body suspended Gambia’s rosewood trade license as a response. The decision came from the CITIES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to protect the remaining endangered rosewoods in southern Senegal and Gambia. You can read Mustapha K. Darboe's article on the subject on Malagen website.

‘Europe’s Waste Dump’: How Dangerously Polluting Oil Ended Up Heating North Macedonia’s Hospitals

May 2021

Despite repeated warnings, the Macedonian government has done little to stop what experts say is a growing flood of dirty oil from entering the country.

Winter’s chill was stealing across Skopje in early 2019 when a video showing clouds of thick, black smoke pouring from the chimney of one of the city’s maternity hospitals first surfaced on social media.

The air was already tinged with an acrid mixture of car fumes and smoke in North Macedonia’s largest city, which has grappled with dangerous levels of atmospheric toxins for decades. In 2018, the UN Environment Programme named Skopje Europe’s most polluted capital, citing data from the World Health Organization.

But the black clouds billowing from the Mother Teresa Gynecological Hospital in the residential area of Čair were new.

This investigation into the use of dirty oil in hospitals in North Macedonia and its link to little-known and politically connected companies was initiated by two of our trainees during the project mentoring. It was then taken over by the same mentor and continued with the support of OCCRP. The full story can be read on OCCRP's website here. It is also available in Czech on Investigate.cz and in Macedonian on IRL Macedonia.

Eni is looking for oil in Albania, but there is no environmental impact assessment

July 2021

On the 20th of December 2019, the Italian oil giant Eni was awarded a new hydrocarbon contract in Albania to extract oil and gas in the onshore block called Dumre. At a high-level event in Tirana, the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy Belinda Balluku, and the CEO of Eni Claudio Descalzi celebrated the company's return to Albania after 20 years and the renewed trade links between the two countries. Dumre has a significant expected reserve according to the government and Eni committed to spending at least US $50.5 million related to the contract.

This story was carried out by

You can read the full story, which explores the lack of an environmental impact assessment and the limitations of how these are carried out in Albania on La Via Libera in Italian and English, and on Vloranews in Albanese.
Shortly after the publication of this investigation, La Via Libera and the authors received a letter from Eni. It is accessible here.

Informal construction endangering Lake Ohrid

October 2020

For several years, the non-governmental organizations that take care of the preservation of the Ohrid region have been sounding the alarm that buildings, hotels and cafes are being illegally built in the protected area around the lake. The permits, given without studies by the respective municipalities, are threatening the heritage of Lake Ohrid.

Corruption and the arbitrary decisions of certain powerful local figures are taking place on both sides of Lake Ohrid. The city of Ohrid has only one construction inspector for the whole city, which is a very big problem to deal with all of the (400 for as of 2021) illegal buildings around the lake. In 2020, the Albanian side of the lake was declared a protected world heritage site for the first time, and the other part (Macedonian), which was protected as a natural (1979) and cultural heritage (1980) site, was debated by UNESCO for inclusion in the list of endangered world heritage sites.

Local governments are turning a blind eye towards informal buildings, legalised in contravention of relevant laws and often connected to municipal councillors.

Most interesting is that at the height of UNESCO’s warning against demolishing illegal buildings, a municipal councillor built a pizzeria within the protected area, accompanied by the mayor of Struga (a city next to Ohrid).

This investigation resulted in a cross-border publication through the media Vizion (Albania) and Pina (North Macedonia).

January 2023 Update

Since this investigation has been published, developments have been slow. UNESCO’s threat to the North Macedonia and Albanian governments to designate Ohrid an “endangered world heritage site”, originally planned to take effect in 2021, has been postponed until 2023. However, thanks to the group Ohrid SOS and the various alerts on the critical state of the lake, few building projects have been abandoned.

The EU Freezing order breaches on Mubarak clan assets

January 2019

Throughout his rule, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak concentrated judicial, legislative and executive powers within his control. Along with his clique or through relatives, he was alleged to have lucrative deals across several industries and countries. This includes allegations of several offshore companies, and a number of luxurious houses and cars in the European Union, most of which fell under a EU asset freezing order in 2011, in order to support national jurisdictions in their corruption and money-laundering cases against the Mubarak clan.

The team’s investigation focused on uncovering, seven years later, what had happened to these so-called frozen assets - wherever and whenever they could find information. Not only was it an arduous task to get elements on the status of these assets, but they quickly understood that in the EU, little to no progress had been made on these specific national judicial cases and NGOs, prosecutors’ offices and ministries remained mostly silent to their requests for information.

They nevertheless managed, in the space of one year, to establish that several breaches had happened in the EU freezing order framework regarding the Mubarak assets. In the British Virgin Islands (which had applied the order), a frozen company managed by Credit Suisse for the benefit of Alaa Mubarak had simply vanished without leaving any trace. In France, a luxurious Parisian flat worth several millions of euros was still being used and inhabited, despite European and national prescriptions regarding the assets of the owner: Khadiga El Gammal, daughter-in-law of the former Egyptian president.

In another article, their investigation revealed that his other daughter-in-law, Heidi Rasekh, had received funds to some accounts managed by the Audi France bank, this after the EU freeze and through a Credit Suisse offshore company owned by her father Magdi Rasekh: Dream Advisors.

This resulted in the publication of a 4-part investigation in Daraj (Egypt), Middle East Monitor (UK) and Jeune Afrique (France).

Read the story in Arabic here and here and in English here and here.
April 2022 Update

Eleven years after the fall of Mubarak's regime, his and his family's assets are no longer frozen or under scrutiny. Following the confirmation of the European General Court, all economic sanctions have been lifted and the family members recovered full access to their wealth. You can read more about it in Transparency International's press release (in English) and in this article by France Info (in French).
March 2023 Update

Two of the authors of our first investigation, Alexandre Brutelle and Osama Al-Sayyad, have again examined the assets of the Mubarak clan, including those of the Ben Ali family. While the question of the future of the Russian oligarchs' assets in France is being raised, their investigation shows that the freezing orders of the Mubarak and Ben Ali clans have been violated nearly thirty times on French territory between 2011 and 2021. This raises serious questions about the effectiveness of these economic sanctions. You can read their articles in French on Mediapart and Inkyfada, and in English and Arabic on the Daraj platform.

The Libyan Patient

December 2018

Patients coming from a civil war and hoping for medical care. Large quantities of public money provided by partially corrupt State bodies. German hospitals and medical service providers who want a piece of the action. COSMO research’s “The Libyan patient” makes a stark accusation: Have German clinics deliberately overcharged patients from a war zone?

Germany and Libya – two countries that at first glance could not be more different. Germany: a democratic constitutional state, with a thriving economy and, according to the Foreign Ministry, one that supports “peace and security” in the world. Further, a transparent country, which narrowly missed out on being in the top ten in the last Transparency International ranking.

Libya, on the other hand, is a failed state, with two governments struggling for international recognition, and dozens of armed militias fighting for individual cities. And, according to Transparency International, one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

In fact, these two states are more connected than you might think. Not only because Libya is currently receiving tens of millions of euros from the EU (and thus also Germany) in order to prevent refugees from making their way to Europe via the desert and across the Mediterranean, but also because a project that was supposed to help thousands of Libyan patients as well as German hospitals, but ultimately left them picking up the pieces, is still being discussed in Libyan politics.

This investigation resulted in a five-part investigative series published by the German media Cosmo. Read it here in German (webarchive).