Creating Peace
"As long as conflict is profitable, it will remain harder to end. Peace will have a chance only when the critical pillars of the war economy are addressed.” Enough Project, Co-Founder, John Prendergast
Over the past three decades, the area stretching from central Africa to the Horn has been the deadliest war zone in the world. Millions of people have perished or been displaced.
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In this extremely unstable zone, the forest elephant population has also been decimated. Their tusks are sold to buy weapons, boots and bullets.
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Moreover, Joseph Kony's Lord’s Resistance Army uses elephant poaching to sustain itself trading tusks for food, weapons and ammunition, and other supplies.
These deadly conflicts are stoked, sustained, and enabled by individuals and entities pursuing significant enrichment through illicit means.
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Following the money that funds atrocities and crimes against humanity
The Sentry is a team of policy analysts, regional experts, and financial forensic investigators that follows the money in order to create consequences for those funding and profiting from genocide or other mass atrocities in Africa, and to build leverage for peace. Co-founded by George Clooney and John Prendergast, The Sentry is an initiative of the Enough Project and Not On Our Watch (NOOW), with investigative support from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS).
George Clooney, The Sentry Co-Founder: ”Our focus is to make sure that war crimes don’t pay. We want to make it more difficult for those willing to kill en masse to secure their political and economic objectives. When we’re able to go after the warlords’ wallets and bankrupt those who choose the bullet over the ballot, suddenly the incentives are for peace, not war; transparency, not corruption.”
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The Sentry’s ultimate objective is to alter the incentive structure of those benefiting financially and politically from conflict and mass atrocities. This will lend greater support to broader accountability measures as well as provide leverage to peace and human rights initiatives aimed at ending Africa’s deadliest conflicts.