These recent trends also reveal that isolated national responses are overwhelmed and are inefficient. These conflicts spread easily from one country to the next. Borders are also a convenient source of revenue, through taxing trade or engaging in smuggling. National borders also give illegal groups a strategic advantage: The reach of the state stops there, so these groups can cross the frontier easily. In these areas, 40 percent of violent events and fatalities occur within 100 kilometers of a national border, a trend that highlights the fact that criminal and militant groups thrive in neglected borderlands where state presence is weak, where increased competition over vulnerable resources is exacerbating communal tensions, and where a very young and poor population is easily lured into crime and violence. These bordering regions are large and have a high concentration of neglected periphery populations this volatile mix has the potential to spill over to neighboring countries and regions. The emergency is already affecting Mauritania and risks further spilling over into the coastal countries of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo. The conflict continues to escalate, uninterrupted by the pandemic: In Burkina Faso, for example, more than 1 million people have been internally displaced, a fourfold increase in one year. Moreover, the situation does not look as if it will improve anytime soon: The Lake Chad region alone hosts more than 3 million displaced people, more than half of whom are children. In 2020, 24 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance and protection in the Sahel region-the highest number ever recorded. It is also very worrisome that the Islamic State is expanding its reach across Africa, and West Africa has become an alphabet soup of militant groups. In a geographical area comparable in size to France, organized crime and nonstate armed groups are increasing their influence and seizing power. The deteriorating security situation in some of West Africa’s most neglected and climate-vulnerable borderlands, such as the Lake Chad region or the Liptako-Gourma region, is alarming by any standard.
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