West African border control will be tenuous

Subject

Border security and migration in West Africa/the Sahel.

Significance

West African states' borders are the focus of multiple international and local security interventions. These efforts are most visible around migration and mobility. Other cross-border threats, such as drug trafficking, fall under the expanding category of 'border management'. In addition to a patchwork of international interventions reinforcing state agencies, non-state security providers are increasingly playing an important role in the region.

Impacts

• States such as Niger will intensify strategies maximising aid around border security -- especially where transit migration is a key issue.
• Despite coordination difficulties, external assistance for border security will be ever more strongly focused on reinforcing state capacity.
• New Western security partners, supplanting former colonial powers, will grow further in influence.
• Regional governments will persist in relying on some sub-state forms of security provision, especially against trafficking.