Gold mining in the Sahel region of Africa has undergone a hazardous change,evolving from a subsistence practice into a key source of funding for both international criminal organizations and jihadist groups. A new report details how illicit gold trade fuels instability across countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger-already grappling with some of the world’s highest rates of terrorism-and highlights the complex intersection of economic and armed networks. The precious metal’s journey from unregulated mines to global markets is increasingly overlapping with routes used for broader criminal enterprises, exacerbating the region’s already fragile security situation.
Gold has become a hugely valuable commodity in the Sahel region of Africa, fueling a surge in illicit economic activity and providing a key funding source for both international criminal organizations and jihadist groups. What began as small-scale, subsistence mining has transformed into a complex network where routes for the precious metal increasingly overlap with those used for broader criminal enterprises.
The intersection of economic and armed networks has turned gold into a strategic resource, not only for criminals but also for financing violence and the expansion of terrorism across the Sahel. This dynamic creates a system that funds instability, undermines state authority, and connects the region to global markets.
The trade in minerals and precious stones operates largely without regulatory oversight, creating an industry rife with ethical, environmental, and labor concerns – including the use of child labor and dangerous working conditions. These practices often provide a convenient and profitable means of laundering money, with devastating consequences for the environment, displacing communities, contaminating water sources, and disregarding legal requirements. An INTERPOL operation recently highlighted the human and environmental toll of illegal mining in West Africa.
Illegal mining is not simply an economic issue; it also damages ecosystems, promotes criminal economies, and exacerbates the vulnerability of communities dependent on natural resources. The practice often involves the use of harmful equipment and chemicals, endangering the health of miners and causing significant environmental damage.
The Sahel, encompassing countries like Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad, is rich in mineral deposits, including gold, uranium, and hydrocarbons. Despite this wealth, natural resources have become the focal point of an illegal economy increasingly integrated with international organized crime. The development underscores the complex challenges facing the region as it attempts to harness its natural wealth for sustainable development.
Poverty and the Rise of Extremism
Despite the abundance of gold, local populations rarely benefit from the wealth generated, which instead concentrates in the hands of elites and fuels corruption and structural inequality – a phenomenon known as the “resource curse.” United Nations data indicates that over 84% of the population in Chad lives in poverty, and approximately 53% in Senegal. Unemployment is a major problem in Niger, affecting 33% of the workforce.
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are among the top ten countries most affected by terrorism, according to the 2024 Global Terrorism Index (GTI). The GTI is based on a composite measure of incidents, fatalities, injuries, and hostage situations. Burkina Faso ranks first, with a score of 8.5 and 111 incidents; Mali is third, with a score of 7.9 and 201 incidents; and Niger is sixth, with a score of 7.7 and 101 incidents. These terrorist activities are primarily carried out by Jama’at Nusrat al islam wa al Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), the local branch of the Islamic State.
A Dangerous Intertwining
The expansion of mining has led to a proliferation of informal mining sites in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Criminal networks are deeply involved, financing intermediaries, driving out rival cooperatives, and mixing illegally mined gold with formal production before exporting it to refineries outside of Africa, where its origin becomes untraceable.
This is where the two worlds collide: criminal networks provide transnational infrastructure, including trade and smuggling routes, while jihadist groups offer territorial protection in exchange for a share of the profits. Gold, in effect, becomes a currency of exchange between the two.
Although organized crime and jihadist terrorism differ in motivation and methods, they functionally converge around gold. This relationship is based on pragmatic cooperation, resulting in a hybrid illicit economy that strengthens both actors and further weakens state authority in the Sahel.
The region provides an ideal environment for criminal organizations and terrorist groups to operate with relative freedom, adapting their illegal activities to local conditions and international demand for resources. This allows them to expand their territory and control trade routes.
It’s important to note that illegal mining is not solely a matter of internal governance; it’s also a transnational issue that makes the region strategically important within new criminal economies. Gold extracted from areas under jihadist control is transported along complex routes connecting it to the international financial system. Investigations show that the metal, mixed with legal production, is exported to refineries in countries like Dubai and Switzerland, where it loses its traceability. This “laundering” process makes gold a secure, portable, and anonymous asset, highly valued for money laundering and tax evasion.
Thus, gold from the Sahel not only finances local violence but also feeds illicit capital flows that cross borders and become integrated into the global formal economy.
While jihadist groups control some extraction and levy taxes on production, gold remains a resource that transcends purely national structures. International criminal networks intervene in later stages, purchasing the mineral from local intermediaries, transporting it to regional markets like Bamako or Lomé, and exporting it to refineries in Dubai or Istanbul for laundering and integration into legal circuits.
The convergence between crime and terrorism does not imply a merger, but rather a cooperation. This balance of interests has created an illicit ecosystem that replaces the state in the provision of security and resources, weakening governance and perpetuating instability.
This economic and political dynamic creates a symbiosis: armed groups gain resources and territorial control, while criminal networks secure access to raw materials and internationalization channels. The state, meanwhile, is displaced in the provision of security and regulation, effectively creating a criminal structure that operates as a platform for financing and logistics for violence.
The phenomenon also has significant geopolitical repercussions. The Sahel is becoming a region of great interest to external powers, including the European Union, Russia, and China, in the context of competition for strategic resources and the energy transition. This strengthens the conversion of natural resources into instruments of control and dependence, turning gold into a means of international influence.
Addressing the Problem Through Cooperation
Beyond the Sahel, this phenomenon reflects a structural transformation of international crime: its increasing integration into global flows of trade and finance. Illegal gold circulates within the world economic system. In this regard, the Sahel functions as a laboratory for the new global crime, in which natural resources replace weapons and drugs as a source of power.
The only way to break the cycle in which the Sahel’s natural resources fuel violence, rather than ensuring peace, is through joint action integrating transparency, security, and development. This common action could combine the governments of the region, continental organizations (such as the African Union), and various international organizations, starting with the UN, with attention to the opinion of local communities.
This cooperation should help with the traceability of gold through transparent systems, the deployment of joint and coordinated forces to restore and ensure security in the region, and the promotion of alternative economies that help communities develop and reduce their dependence on illegal mining. Only in this way can the convergence between the illicit economy, criminal networks, and jihadist groups currently persisting in the Sahel be weakened.
