@mmic78 presenting the latest research on human smuggling and trafficking dynamics in North Africa and the Sahel in 2019 and 2020.
Human smuggling in Niger went through 3 main phases. 1) Disruption 2016-2018 2) Relaxation of law enforcement 2018-2020 3) Disruption since Covid @AlexandreBish
Key smuggling trends to watch in Niger.
@petertinti "Migrant smuggling has completely rebounded in Timbuktu to pre-Covid levels"
“As #Ukraine is united in fighting Russian aggression, #militias have been reigned in and are essentially part of the armed forces. While we’re not seeing weapons proliferation right now, this doesn’t mean the situation will continue when the fighting stops", explains @scrawnya.
🌳 The W, Arly and Pendjari national parks, or the WAP complex, is an area of natural reserves.
Its location along multiple borders and cover by forests have made it a critical space for non-state armed groups feeding political instability in the Sahel. globalinitiative.net/analysis/armed…
🇧🇯 There has been a sharp rise in violent attacks in the areas skirting the WAP complex in #Benin since late 2021.
🔴 The areas have become important for the region’s two main armed groups - Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (#JNIM) and Islamic State Sahel Province (#ISSP).
🚨 In the WAP complex, the principal aim of #JNIM in engaging with #illiciteconomies is to further their governance agenda.
🏞️ The park serves as a relatively safe route for small bands of #smugglers to transport fuel and consumer goods across borders
🇸🇴 The #Somali Islamist group, #alShabaab, is the ‘largest, wealthiest and most deadly’ al-Qaeda affiliate remaining in the world.
🔴 Despite losing territory since 2011, the group has remained dominant, exerting control and power far beyond areas it physically controls.
💰 #AlShabaab’s continued resilience can largely be attributed to their checkpoint #taxation apparatus it has established throughout southern #Somalia.
The group categorizes its #tax system into four streams:
🚚 Transit
📦 Goods
🌾 Agricultural produce
🐐 Livestock
⚠️ Despite the group’s #checkpoints and #tax officials routinely targeted by government and international forces, #AlShabaab can easily adapt by relocating those checkpoints and replacing the tax collectors.
1/ “Through the GI-TOC’S Resilience Fund’s work, it has become increasingly clear, across jurisdictions and cultures, that women are repeatedly at the forefront of building community resilience to organized crime” #GIResilience
⬇️
2/ Photo below shows Community members protest against the disappearance of their loved ones in a march organized by @Sabuesosguerre2 a #GIResilience Fund beneficiary, in Culiacán, Mexico, September 2020🇲🇽
2/ The role of women in resilience responses to organized crime is generally unexplored, and this brief is intended as the beginning of a narrative that seeks to deepen understanding of this dynamic.
⬇️