MTN accused of helping the Taliban, violating the US Anti-Terrorism Act

Cellular giant MTN has been listed as one of the defendants in a United States of America (US) court case accusing six business entities of supporting terrorism in Afghanistan and violating the US Anti-Terrorism Act.

MTN is one of the companies accused of having supported the Taliban in ways including allegedly making payments to ensure the protection of the fundamentalist religious and political group.

“Defendants supported the Taliban for a simple reason: defendants were all large Western companies with lucrative businesses in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and they all paid the Taliban to refrain from attacking their business interests,” alleges the complaint lodged against the companies.

US firms Centerra Group, DAI Global, Janus Global Operations, and Black & Veatch Special Projects; as well as London-based G4S Holdings International and Canadian company Louis Berger Group are the other companies named. The companies have declined to comment pending litigation.

MTN has since released a statement saying it believes it conducted business in “a responsible and compliant manner” and signalling its willingness to defend itself against the accusations.

“On 27 December 2019, a complaint for violation of the anti-terrorism act was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia,” the statement says.

“The complaint was filed on behalf of American service members and civilians, and their families, who were killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017. The complaint alleges that several Western businesses supported the Taliban by, inter alia, making payments to ensure the protection of their infrastructure. The defendants named in the complaint are six different groups one of which is MTN and certain of its subsidiary companies including MTN Afghanistan.

“MTN is reviewing the details of the report and is consulting its advisers but remains of the view that it conducts its business in a responsible and compliant manner in all its territories and so intends to defend its position where necessary,” the statement concludes.

Washington’s Courthouse News Service says there are almost 400 complainants claiming unspecified damages. They are either those injured in Afghanistan or the family of those who were.

The complainants allege that payments made by the companies “aided and abetted terrorism by directly funding an al-Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgency that killed and injured thousands of Americans”.

“Defendants decided that buying off the terrorists was the most efficient way to operate their businesses while managing their own security risks – even though doing so jeopardised other American lives,” the complaint states.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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