Who are Northwest Nigeria’s bandits and what are we to make of them?
@jh_barnett & myself travelled to the epicenter of the banditry crisis to find answers. In this thread, we explore who these bandits are, what drives them, and why are they so hard to defeat. (1/n) In northwest Nigeria, banditry vastly outpaces jihadism in scope and impact. There may be 100-200 groups and thousands of bandits, known for their attacks and kidnappings. Yet Nigeria’s bandits remain an elusive phenomenon, resisting defeat and defying categorization. (2/n)

Very proud to announce 'infrastructural frontiers: terrains of resistance at the edge of empires' has been published by #Geoforum, a collective & interdisciplinary attempt to bridge the study of #infrastructure and #resistance. A thread w/main takeaways Featuring archeologists, activists, anthropologists, political scientists & geographers, the special issue pushes the study of the politics of infrastructure to its physical and theoretical frontiers, w/cases from Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa

We've mapped roadblocks in South Sudan, the DR Congo, and the Central African Republic.

So what about the rest of the world?

A thread with maps & links of the available evidence.

Feel free to add in the comments! In West Africa, checkpoints are endemic along major trade routes, as discussed in the great research by @ojwalther et al

Maintenant disponible : mon livre ​​« Roadblock Politics », qui explore comment le contrôle des points étroits le long des routes commerciales constitue un moteur clé du conflit et de la formation de l'État en Afrique centrale, historiquement et contemporainement. THREAD + IMAGES Il y a tellement de barrières routières dans cette partie du monde qu'il est difficile de trouver une route qui n'en ait pas. Cartographiant de plus de 1.000 d'entre eux, je montre que les barrages routiers incarnent une modalité politique significative - ​​« roadblock politics »

Now available the world across--surreal to hold a copy of my book 'Roadblock Politics', which explores how control over narrow points along trade routes constitutes a key driver of conflict and state formation in Central Africa, historically and contemporary. A THREAD W/IMAGES There are so many roadblocks in this part of the world that it's hard to find a road which doesn't have one. Based on years of work & mapping over a thousand of them, I show that roadblocks embody a meaningful form of politics--roadblock politics