Kufrah, in Libya’s far south, is one of the Sahara’s most important crossroads, frequently portrayed as a centre of migrant smuggling, illicit trade and organised crime. Since the outbreak of war in Sudan in 2023, it has also emerged as a strategic hub connecting conflicts and movements across the region. This paper moves beyond these characterisations to examine how authority is exercised along the routes that pass through the city.
This working paper argues that power in Kufrah is rooted less in the control of territory than in the ability to regulate movement, examining how authority is produced through the management of key transport corridors and transit routes. It argues that control over movement is a critical source of political and economic power, influencing access to markets, revenue generation and wider patterns of order and conflict across the Sahara.
This paper forms part of a series of working papers presenting case studies from TRACE (Trade, Rents, and Authority in borderland Checkpoint Economies) project, and was first published on the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) website.