The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes has concluded a three-day national mentoring workshop on Financial Analysis in Terrorism Financing and Organized Crime Investigation for analysts of the Financial Intelligence Agency of Liberia ( FIA).
The workshop was organized in Monrovia from October 6 to 8, 2026, and brought together nine (9) analysts from the FIA who are most engaged in Research and Analysis
The training was aimed at strengthening the capacity of the FIA to analyze and write intelligence reports that involve terrorism financing risks and other suspected predicate offenses .
The workshop was organized against the backdrop of a growing terrorism threat in West Africa. According to UNODC, terrorist groups have increased attacks in Sahel countries, with the threat spreading to coastal countries such as Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo and reaching the borders of Mali and Senegal.
Organizers highlighted that criminal networks play an active, geographically widespread and economically dominant role in the region, fueling armed conflicts through illicit profits, arms and fuel trafficking, and the establishment of a “protection economy.”
While Liberia has not suffered any terrorist attacks to date, the training underscored preventive measures that can be taken by the country highlighting the role of the FIA. The laws empowered the FIA as the national authority responsible for collecting, analyzing and disseminating financial intelligence to Competent Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies
Unlike conventional capacity-building programs that focus on legal frameworks, the workshop adopted an immersive, simulation-based learning approach.
Participants experienced the complete analytical process followed by financial intelligence analysts — from receipt of an initial STR to the production of a final intelligence Report— with a focus on terrorism financing through social media platforms, instant messaging and streaming platforms (SMSPs).
The sessions included institutional development and inter-agency coordination based on experience from the Ghanaian Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), and a case study on SMSPs presented by the Ghanaian Counter Terrorism Fusion Centre (CTFC).
Other components included FIA Institutional Functioning Sessions, Case Study Presentations, Live Financial Intelligence Simulation and Financial Intelligence Assessment Exercise.
At the end of the training, participants produced a structured financial intelligence report assessing the threat, identifying key financial relationships and recommending appropriate dissemination actions.
UNODC said the financing of terrorism remains one of the most significant challenges to national and regional security, as terrorist organizations exploit both formal and informal financial systems, charities, trade networks and emerging financial technologies to raise, move and conceal funds, often in relatively modest amounts that are difficult to detect