In this feature, part of a series exploring the fight against human trafficking in the Sahel, UN News focuses on the illegal fuel trade in the region.
Transported by criminal networks and taxed by terrorist groups, illicit fuel flows along four main routes across the Sahel to willing buyers, siphoning millions of dollars from countries. on the way to stabilizing the security-challenged region, home to 300 million people.
“The fuel trade is undermining the law; it is fostering corruption,” said François Patuel, Director of the Research and Awareness Unit at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). “It also facilitates other forms of crime. That’s why it needs to be addressed.”
Fuel trade in the Sahel
Call request, human trafficker answers
The fuel trade is big business in the region. A report from UNODC, Fuel trade in the Sahel, found that it illegally funds non-governmental armed groups, terrorist groups, financial institutions, corrupt law enforcement officials, and groups with connections to prominent individuals have interests in retail fuel companies. It is also in high demand among the population.
The biggest supporting factors are low, heavily subsidized gas prices in Algeria, Libya and Nigeria. UNODC reports that gas stations in Libya charge 11 cents a liter, but across the border the price of a pump in Malian averages $1.94.
Lost millions
“Just going across the border, they make 90 cents per liter,” explains Mr. Patuel. “It’s easy revenue for criminal groups.”
He said traffickers then sell to people, who rely on cheaper fuels to carry out their activities and daily lives, from fueling generators to generating electricity. or fill up gas tanks to transport their goods to the market.
He added: “They are really exploiting those needs to sell their criminal products, including contraband fuel.
The UNODC report tracked activities across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Along well-trafficked routes, drivers transport millions of liters of smuggled fuel every year. Established routes run from Algeria to Mali, another connects Libya with Niger and Chad, and another starts in Nigeria via Benin to Burkina Faso, and via Niger to Mali.
Amado Philip de Andrés, UNODC’s regional representative for West and Central Africa, said the loss to the Sahelian countries was staggering.
According to the country’s High Authority for Combating Corruption and Related Violations, the illegal trade costs Niger nearly $8 million in taxes annually. The Government Office said smugglers evade taxes by purchasing fuel marked for export at a lower cost and diverting deliveries domestically or across borders.
Motorcycles transport smuggled fuel in Dosso, Niger, near the Nigerian border.
terrorist tax
However, smugglers pay “taxes” to newly formed terrorist groups, including around Kourou/Koualou, where illegal warehouses store contraband fuel tanks while in transit, UNODC reports. , adding that groups linked to Al-Qaida operate several gold mines in the area. rich mines, and often charged fees for contraband.
Regarding the natural resource trade in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, “local communities are particularly vulnerable, as they live in isolated areas with limited enforcement presence. legislation,” according to a report. Trend alert report of Security CouncilExecutive Board of the Anti-Terrorism Committee (CTED).
Oftentimes, smuggled fuel is just the surface of a very deep trade, reflecting the links between criminal activities, from drugs to migrants, Mr. Patuel said, citing Mr. Patuel. cites the example of the 2021 Nigerian police seizure of 17 tons of cannabis resin related to a known subject. fuel dealers own gas stations. The suspect allegedly used drug money to buy smuggled fuel sold at his gas stations.
UNODC highlights other new and disturbing trends that show companies linked to individuals sanctioned by the Security Council are involved in fuel smuggling from Niger to Mali, as smugglers peddling a variety of products is increasing.
Such profiteering has raised alarm bells throughout the United Nations system. Having repeatedly expressed concern about the use of proceeds from the natural resource trade by terrorist groups to finance their nefarious activities, the United Nations Security Council has called on States to , among other things, holding offenders accountable.
In Burkina Faso, frontline officers conducted checks at suspected smuggling hotspots.
Eliminate corruption
However, ending fuel smuggling is a complex project with potentially deadly consequences in a region with a staggeringly high rate of informal employment, from 78.2% in Niger to 96, 9% in Chad. UNODC is concerned that stopping illegal fuel flows could increase transport and energy prices along with the cost of most commercial goods and services.
The office recommends that Sahelian states and neighboring countries identify and prosecute fuel smuggling cases that are directly linked to organized crime, armed groups and corruption. Available tools included in international treaties such as United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime And United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
Illegal flow limit
UNODC said that while some anti-smuggling efforts have met with fierce resistance, including the death of a law enforcement officer, despite the risks, countries continue to stem the flow of illicit legally using innovative and collaborative methods.
The agency’s latest threat assessment into the phenomenon provides a range of examples, from police-escorted car convoys in Algeria near the Malian border to curfews and raids by the Benin aims to prevent armed groups from crossing borders.
For its part, Burkina Faso has meticulously dismantled since 2019 a highly organized fuel trafficking network that smuggled more than 3 million liters of contraband over a three-year period, with fleets of transport trucks. up to 30,000 liters per trip.
Back in Kourou/Koualou, the flow of illegal fuel has been reduced to a trickle following government crackdowns, but terrorist groups continue to “tax the fuel that is still being trafficked, as well as the fuels that are still being trafficked.” other smuggled goods”, according to UNODC.
“Criminal groups feed and exploit the needs of people,” said Patuel, principal investigator for the agency. “Combining efforts and taking a regional approach will lead to success in tackling organized crime in the region.”
Ongoing violence, climate change, desertification and stress over natural resources are all exacerbating poverty across Chad.
UN in action
The United Nations and partners are working to stamp out human trafficking and also create opportunities in the region. Here are some examples:
- The United Nations has launched a $180 million project by 2022 targeting 1.6 million people in the Liptako-Gourma region, which straddles the borders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, to improve opportunities. economy and livelihoods, with a focus on women, youth and herders, as part of the Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (university).
- Within the framework of UNISS peace and security initiatives, a project are helping to prevent the spread and resurgence of violent extremism in cross-border areas between Senegal, Guinea and Mali.
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Stakeholders exchanged initiatives and ideas on preventing violent extremism in West and Central Africa at a meeting meeting held in Dakar from 28 February to 2 March and co-hosted by the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (SURPRISE), Senegal’s Center for Advanced Security and Defense Studies and Switzerland’s foreign ministry.
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International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the G5 Sahel Force signed new deal in April to strengthen regional and interstate cooperation across the spectrum of human movement as an accelerator to build resilience, development, and integrated border governance in G5 countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger).
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is addressing emerging challenges in Côte d’Ivoire, releasing at the end of May the first situation report about the country, which continues to be affected by the spread of conflict since the central Sahel crisis.
The United Nations agency for refugees, UNHCR, has launched cash-for-work programs, using youth from host communities in Awaradi, Niger, to make bricks.
