A close look at two border towns in Iraq’s western desert illustrates the law of unintended consequences. The Iraqi government, bordering countries, and the international community moved to more tightly control official border crossings in order to defeat ISIS. As a result, however, militias and smugglers have moved a great deal of commerce, legal and illicit, to other crossing points. In the meantime, people along once-prosperous trade routes suffer privation and violence, driving new conflicts.
Researchers Renad Mansour and Hayder Al-Shakeri tell the tale of trade, smuggling, and conflict across Iraq’s borders. The trajectory of trade route towns Rutba and Qaim help explain the mechanics of conflict supply chains and the unintended consequences of efforts to secure parts of the border without thinking of the spinoff effects.
This podcast is part of the ‘Order from Ashes’ series from the Century Foundation. It was originally published here.
The flow of migrants, from East and West Africa to Libya is on a scale much smaller than before, but is increasingly linked to violence along the conflict supply chain of human smuggling and trafficking.
Although the conditions for migrants in Libya is better documented, migration flows also play a key role in transit hubs like Agadez, Niger.
This podcast is part of the ‘Africa Aware’ series by Chatham House. It was originally published here.
Join former Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, Dr Lina Khatib and XCEPT Project Manager Leah de Haan for a discussion of the cross-border conflict economy moving from Lebanon through to Syria, Jordan and into Iraq.
This podcast is a Chatham House Twitter Space recording. It was originally published here.
By looking at some of the key hubs of Kufra, Sebha and Agadez, this Twitter Space asks how human smuggling and trafficking impacts communities experiencing conflict.
This podcast is a Chatham House Twitter Space recording. It was originally published here.
The war in northern Ethiopia since November 2020, and subsequent conquest of disputed farmlands in Al-Fashaga by the Sudanese army on the Ethiopia-Sudan border, has brought into focus the importance of agricultural commodities such as sesame as a potential driver of land contestation and conflict.
The panel discusses the interrelation of commodity and conflict supply chains, land contestation, and boundary disputes in the Horn of Africa, with a particular focus on the regions of Wolkait/Western Tigray in northwest Ethiopia and Al Fashaga in eastern Sudan.
This podcast is part of the ‘Africa Aware’ series by Chatham House. It was originally published here.
The UN fact finding mission to Libya this week stated that the European Union had “aided and abetted” the commission of the crimes in Libya as a result of its support to Libyan authorities to crack down on irregular migration. Their conclusions echo long held allegations made by human rights organisations.
The international narrative on migration in Libya – like the migrant experience itself – is one of abuse and exploitation. Despite the numbers of Mediterranean crossings from Libya remaining lower than the heights of 2016, many migrants and refugees still lose their lives as they attempt to reach Europe.
Yet, criticism of those engaged in human smuggling and trafficking rarely includes the voices and perceptions of Libyan society, where local smugglers and traffickers burrow. How do Libyans feel about the sector? And how can they reconcile themselves to what is going on?
Read the full article on The New Arab, where this piece was originally published.
Nigeria is the largest producer of irregular migrants in sub-Saharan Africa, enabled by smuggling and human trafficking networks. Edo State, in the sprawling poverty-ravaged South-South region of Nigeria, is the epicentre of this mass exodus for ‘greener pasture’ and better life.
Over decades, Edo-based human trafficking networks have expanded across the globe, led by a cadre of self-made kingpins, madams, recruiters, fixers, facilitators and financiers that have become skilled specialists in their field.
Despite the local and international attempts to shut these networks down, they have remained resilient, trading off socio-economic inequalities to sustain themselves and shape their own narrative.
Read the rest of the article on Premium Times, where this piece was originally published.
