Impact of transnational organized crime on stability and development in the Sahel: assessment of the threat of transnational organized crime – Sahel – Burkina Faso

Fighting organized crime is essential to stabilizing the Sahel region and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, says UNODC report

Vienna, June 28, 2024

Transnational organized crime in the Sahel represents a major obstacle to peace and security, human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Drugs crime (UNODC). Impact of transnational organized crime on stability and development in the Sahel.

“So far, stabilization efforts in the Sahel have mainly focused on security and terrorism, largely underestimating the role that transnational organized crime plays in the current situation of this fragile region,” said Amado Philip of Andrés, UNODC regional representative for West and Central Africa.

The report examines how organized crime fuels tensions, violence and competition for illicit profits and control of territory. Revenues from illicit markets such as drugs, gold and fuel from trafficking are reinvested in the purchase of weapons and vehicles, allowing armed groups to launch deadly attacks. Ongoing conflicts around key strategic trafficking points in northern Mali, Niger or Chad illustrate how organized crime can delay conflict resolution.

Trafficking, in all its forms, can strengthen the legitimacy of armed groups involved in transnational organized crime by redistributing the proceeds of crime to areas where economic opportunities are limited.

Yet, in the long term, these criminal activities undermine the state’s ability to uphold the rule of law and generate sustainable investment and skills development. These illicit economic opportunities also carry risks of human rights violations. For example, in artisanal and small-scale gold mining sites in the Sahel, criminal groups may use child labor, expose workers to exploitative conditions, or trap them in poverty through pre-financing agreements.

Transnational organized crime hinders the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the report notes, with crimes such as trafficking in medical products hindering access to health care; sexual violence and exploitation of illegal migrants that slow gender equality; and cyanide and mercury used at illegal gold mining sites that contaminate water and land.

The report also shows how organized crime fuels corruption, undermines trust in state institutions, and undermines state legitimacy. Criminal groups operating across the Sahel appear to have used revenues generated from illicit economic activities to try to infiltrate state structures. For example, bribes paid to law enforcement officers on the Burkina Faso-Benin border to facilitate fuel trafficking amount to between 350,000 and 700,000 CFA francs per truck (between US$553 and US$1,106), more than the monthly salary of many civil servants.

Organized crime, such as gold and fuel smuggling, directly reduces state tax revenues that could otherwise be used to fund social welfare systems and stimulate economic development, the report notes. In Burkina Faso, for example, a parliamentary commission estimated that fraud linked to gold trafficking represented a tax loss of more than $490 million per year, which represents more than the budgetary expenditure allocated to the Burkinabe public health sector. in 2023 (around $479 million).

The report calls for a fundamental shift in the way policymakers conceptualize and plan their stabilization and sustainable development strategies in the Sahel. It advocates for integrated, evidence-based approaches to organized crime and provides alternative livelihood opportunities for poor communities dependent on trafficking activities.

“This UNODC report shows why the international community must urgently step up its comprehensive assistance to combat organized crime, address high levels of instability and violence, and support the people of the Sahel on a more peaceful and prosperous path,” said Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Director and Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel.

Read the full report here.