French firms criticised following Niger kidnappings

Nuclear group Areva has evacuated over 130 expatriate workers from the north of Niger after five employees of Sotom, a subsidiary of Vinci, and one of Areva, along with his wife, were kidnapped on September 15 and 16 in the mining site of Arlit. The attack has subsequently been claimed by terror group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM. The firms have said that security measures have been stepped up since the kidnappings took place, and that they are working closely with the governments of France and Niger in order to obtain the release of the hostages. But the French media has raised doubts on the efficacy of security measures put in place in Arlit by Areva, which manages the site. The most serious accusation has been made by daily newspaper Le Monde, which published a copy of a letter issued by the local government of Arlit to the company supposedly warning against the imminent risk of kidnappings and claimed that the firm ignored it.hideAreva has refuted the accusation, saying that the letter was part of a regular assessment exercise performed with the Niger authorities and that no new relevant information was provided by the Niger government during a meeting with the firm's security officials one week before the attack. “Security in risky locations is a complex issue and it is easy to make criticisms after an incident takes place. But on the other hand in this particular case it is clear that security arrangements have not worked,” says Gilles Sacaze, the CEO of Gallice Security, a French security firm. Secret Défence, a blog on defence issues, has claimed that security experts have issued continuous warnings of the higher risks faced by uranium mines in Niger. The episode has turned the focus on the efforts made by French companies to guarantee the security of their expatriates. Experts have been highlighting, for instance, the fact that French companies often seem to adopt less tough security measures than their Anglo-Saxon peers. According to Geos Group, a risk management advisory company, France's largest firms spend between 1% and 2% of their foreign budgets on security. Among their US peers, the ratio sometimes reaches up to 4%. But Olivier Hassid, the Head of the Club des Directeurs de Sécurité d'Entreprise, CDSE, argues that French companies are well aware of the risks faced by their employees and work on mitigation as well as they can. “Security measures put in place by France's large groups are almost always sufficient. It is completely wrong to say otherwise,” he said. CDSE is an association that gathers the heads of security of large companies and promotes awareness of security risks and technologies that can be used to tackle such risks. The association also offers tools to help firms to act in times of crisis. “CDSE has an agreement with the Crisis Centre at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which means that we are permanently in touch with them in times of crisis,” said Mr. Hassid. Thus we exchange information and keep the government informed on the expatriate workers our members have abroad and the measures they are taking to guarantee their security.”

French firms criticised following Niger kidnappings

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