Motorbikes and Armed Goups in the Sahel
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report examines how motorbikes are drivers of both stability and instability in the Sahel region of West Africa. Specifically, it examines how variants of motorbike crime contribute to destabilization at a local economic level and in the broader Sahelian conflict.
In that regard, the practices of both motorbike theft and motorbike trafficking are examined. The involvement of the Sahel’s armed groups in trafficking is closely explored, and it is argued that motorbike trafficking is critical to the operations and mobility of Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and Islamic State Sahel (IS Sahel).
It is difficult to overstate the importance of motorbikes to the daily life of residents of the Sahel region. Motorbikes are an essential means of transport in both urban and rural settings in these three countries, and the lynchpin of many local economies. This is because they represent the cheapest, and often most reliable, means of transport for citizens who cannot or do not want to rely on public transport, or who cannot afford a car. They have very often replaced donkey carts, camels or bicycles as forms of transport, and have become a staple in business and family life in the Sahel.
Motorbikes are much better suited to unpaved, bumpy or sandy roads than most cars. They are also more fuel efficient and easily repaired, which makes them crucial in rural settings. Certain brands of heavy or large motorbikes have become the most common mode of transport for farmers and herders in Burkina Faso and central Mali, given their ability to traverse poorly paved roads or sandy surfaces.
Despite their essential place in domestic and economic life, motorbikes are also a flashpoint in the Sahel’s landscape of insecurity. The importance of motorbikes in daily life means demand is consistently high, which in turn makes motorbikes a desirable target for thieves. Motorbike theft in the Sahel is often violent in nature, and it has hugely damaging economic consequences for citizens. The loss of a motorbike can also seriously damage a household’s resilience to other shocks, particularly in an increasingly unstable region damaged by conflict.
Most notably, motorbikes have been indispensable to the violent extremist armed groups that have destabilized not only the central Sahel region, but increasingly the northern fringes of the states along the Gulf of Guinea. Much as Toyota pickup trucks became emblematic in certain conflicts – such as the post-2014 activities of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, to the so-called Toyota Wars between Libyan and Chadian forces in the late 1980s – so motorbikes have become in the Sahelian conflict. Propaganda images of the two main violent extremist groups in the Sahel, JNIM and IS Sahel, very often feature them astride motorbikes or on armed pickup trucks. In turn, Sahelian state authorities frequently issue press releases when large quantities of motorbikes are seized, framing such seizures as successful counterinsurgency efforts.
| Full title | AUGUST 2023 Eleanor Beevor MOTORBIKES AND ARMED GROUPS IN THE SAHEL Anatomy of a regional market |
|---|---|
| Author | Eleanor Beevor |
| Publisher | Global Initiative |
| Year | 2023 |
| Media type | Report / PDF |
| Link | https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Eleanor-Beavor-Motorbikes-and-armed-groups-in-the-Sahel-anatomy-of-a-regional-market-GI-TOC-August-2023.pdf |
| Topics | Struggles and Uprisings, Perspectives on Migration |
| Regions | Sahara and Sahel |