Controlling Transnational Organized Crimes (TOCs) in Ethiopia: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This article explores the challenges and opportunities of the counterstrategies to
addressing transnational organized crime (TOC) as a security issue in Ethiopia.
The study on which this article is based was motivated by two main questions:
first, what are the factors that underlie TOC in Ethiopia? Second, what are the
challenges of, and limitations to, Ethiopia’s counterstrategies against TOC? The
goal of this study was to identify the factors that foster transnational organized
crime in Ethiopia, and provide a research-based theoretical and practical
explanation about the approaches Ethiopia should follow to tackle the problem
of TOC. The study was dependent on secondary sources of data, and identified
various counterstrategies on TOC including a Law and Order Approach,
Enterprise Approach, Development Approach, Security Approach, Administrative
Approach and Integrated Approach. The article presents a theoretical explanation
of the counterstrategies against TOC based on theories of change. Accordingly,
legislative gaps, lack of a national guiding strategic document on TOC, weak
institutional cooperation, the complexity of investigating and prosecuting TOC,
corruption in the public sector, and convergence of terrorism with TOC, have been
identified as the major challenges of addressing TOC in Ethiopia. On the other
hand, enhanced mutual legal assistance and extradition processes, expanding
the presence of Ethiopian law enforcement agents abroad, collaboration with
INTERPOL, and rigorous legislative reform as regards TOC have been elaborated
as the main opportunities for dealing with this crime in Ethiopia.