The Sahel faces further destabilisation from the jihadi gold rush
Africa’s Sahel, a region separating the Sahara Desert to the north and savannas to the south, is notorious for widespread poverty and persistent conflict. In fact, Western Sahel, especially Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, is the most unstable area on the continent.
For years, terrorist attacks have been a frequent occurrence but recently the region has been facing a new threat - a wave of extremist violence targeting gold mines.
Groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State have been taking over gold mines and becoming increasingly involved in the informal gold trade.
‘More than 2m people are involved in small-scale mining in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger’, reported the International Crisis Group. As the NGO explained, ‘in total they dig up 40-95 tonnes of gold a year, worth some $1.9bn-4.5...