{"id":77115,"date":"2025-09-30T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/why-provinces-cut-off-west-africa\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:20:00","slug":"why-provinces-cut-off-west-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/why-provinces-cut-off-west-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are some provinces almost cut off from the rest of the country?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In several West African countries, certain provinces or regions appear \u201cdisconnected\u201d from the rest of the national territory. Residents speak of \u201cabandoned\u201d or \u201cforgotten\u201d areas, \u201ccut off from the country\u201d. This situation is neither anecdotal nor solely linked to current security events: it results from a combination of historical, political, economic and military factors.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding these mechanisms is essential to analysing the advance of armed groups, mistrust of the state and the risks of territorial fragmentation.<\/p>\n<h2>Geographical and road isolation that is often structural<\/h2>\n<p>Many marginalised provinces are located on the periphery of the national territory, far from capitals and major economic centres. They combine several handicaps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Distance from capitals<\/strong>: several hours or days of travel, often on unpaved roads, make journeys costly and uncertain.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Limited road infrastructure<\/strong>: degraded tracks, fragile bridges, roads impassable in the rainy season. In some Sahelian countries, localities become almost inaccessible for several months a year.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Difficult terrain and environment<\/strong>: desert areas, rocky massifs, dense forests or floodplains complicate the building and maintenance of roads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This infrastructure deficit is not only a matter of natural constraints. It often reflects investment choices geared towards economic corridors (ports, capitals, large cities) at the expense of peripheral rural areas. Work by organisations such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) regularly highlights this centre\u2013periphery imbalance in spatial planning policies.<\/p>\n<h2>An uneven and sometimes very weak state presence<\/h2>\n<p>Being \u201ccut off from the country\u201d also means being far from the state, in terms of the services and institutions it is supposed to provide:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scarce or absent public services<\/strong>: few schools, health centres or administrative offices, and high turnover or absenteeism among public servants, especially in remote areas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distant justice and police<\/strong>: recourse to customary or religious authorities or to local arrangements, for lack of accessible courts and security forces.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Limited capacity to intervene<\/strong>: even in a crisis (local conflicts, violence, disasters), the state intervenes late and with few resources, which reinforces the sense of abandonment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This weak state presence does not mean an absence of power. Rather, it opens the way to alternative forms of regulation: traditional chieftaincies, religious leaders, local notables, but also armed groups, self-defence militias or traffickers. The institutional space left vacant is then occupied by other actors, sometimes perceived as more accessible or more effective than the official administration.<\/p>\n<h2>Insecurity, armed groups and the gradual severing of roads<\/h2>\n<p>In several countries of the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea, insecurity has turned already marginalised regions into areas that are almost landlocked.<\/p>\n<p>Jihadist groups and other non-state armed groups often use a strategy of controlling roads:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Attacks on convoys and ambushes<\/strong>: targeting security forces and local authorities, but also transporters and traders.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Informal checkpoints<\/strong>: illegal taxation, intimidation of travellers, screening of movements.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sabotage of infrastructure<\/strong>: destroyed bridges and mined or booby-trapped roads, making certain stretches too dangerous.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The direct consequence: public transport becomes scarce, and private transporters raise their prices sharply or stop serving certain localities. In contexts documented by organisations such as the International Crisis Group and ACLED, rural areas find themselves practically cut off from regional capitals, except for a few escorted convoys or clandestine journeys.<\/p>\n<p>For populations, this translates into:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>difficulties in accessing markets (selling livestock and farm produce, obtaining food supplies);<\/li>\n<li>supply disruptions (medicines, fuel, basic goods);<\/li>\n<li>rising prices and greater precariousness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Isolation then becomes as much economic as it is security-related.<\/p>\n<h2>Political marginalisation and a sense of abandonment<\/h2>\n<p>In several countries, the most isolated provinces are also those where the sense of political marginalisation is strongest. Several elements come up frequently in field surveys and think tank reports:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Perceived under-representation<\/strong> in national institutions and in decision-making positions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regional inequalities<\/strong> in public investment, infrastructure and public-sector jobs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Memories of conflict or repression<\/strong> that fuel lasting mistrust of the central state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This political dimension cannot be reduced to \u201cethnic\u201d or \u201creligious\u201d divides, even if these may be mobilised in discourse. It reflects specific historical trajectories: the late integration of certain regions into the colonial state, past rebellions, partially implemented peace agreements, or competition between local and national elites.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, isolation is not only physical. It is also symbolic: many residents feel that their concerns carry no weight in decisions taken in the capital.<\/p>\n<h2>Informal economy, trafficking and the reshaping of local power<\/h2>\n<p>Areas with little state control and far from urban centres often play a key role in informal economies and cross-border trafficking:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>movement of fuel, gold, livestock, cigarettes and medicines, and sometimes drugs or arms;<\/li>\n<li>circumvention of customs and tax controls;<\/li>\n<li>the presence of clandestine or semi-clandestine actors (smugglers, people-smuggling networks, informal collectors).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These activities are not always perceived locally as \u201ccriminal\u201d, especially when they provide income and services in the absence of alternatives. They nevertheless help strengthen economic and social circuits that operate largely outside the state.<\/p>\n<p>In some areas, armed groups profit from these flows (taxation, protection, direct participation), which strengthens their capacity for influence and their bargaining power. The province\u2019s isolation is then accompanied by a form of integration into regional, sometimes transnational, trafficking networks.<\/p>\n<h2>Porous national borders, cross-border solidarities<\/h2>\n<p>Many provinces described as \u201ccut off from the country\u201d are in fact turned outwards: towards the neighbouring country rather than the national capital. Borders inherited from the colonial period often cut across older living spaces:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the same linguistic or lineage groups on either side of the border;<\/li>\n<li>cross-border weekly markets;<\/li>\n<li>seasonal mobility of herders, traders or migrant workers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In these contexts, the sense of belonging is sometimes stronger at local or cross-border level than at national level. The province may seem \u201ccut off from the country\u201d, but it is in fact part of a dynamic cross-border space, with its own rules and trade circuits.<\/p>\n<p>For states, this situation poses a challenge: how to strengthen the public presence without disrupting often long-standing local balances, and without systematically criminalising practices that ensure the economic survival of populations?<\/p>\n<h2>Consequences for stability and national cohesion<\/h2>\n<p>The isolation of certain provinces has several long-term effects on the stability of states:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Greater vulnerability to violent extremism<\/strong>: armed groups exploit frustration, the absence of services and the sense of injustice to recruit or obtain passive support.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fragmentation of the national space<\/strong>: some regions increasingly function as \u201carchipelagos\u201d linked by secured corridors, while others slip into areas of weak state control.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Crisis of legitimacy<\/strong>: when the state can no longer guarantee a minimum of security and services, its legitimacy is called into question, to the benefit of local or armed actors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Public responses often focus on the security dimension (deployment of forces, military operations), which is sometimes necessary to reopen roads. But the specialist literature stresses that durably reducing isolation also requires:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>targeted investment in basic infrastructure;<\/li>\n<li>improved local governance and access to justice;<\/li>\n<li>dialogue with local community and economic actors;<\/li>\n<li>better coordination between national policies and cross-border dynamics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The question of provinces \u201calmost cut off from the country\u201d therefore points to a central issue: the capacity of West African states to integrate their peripheries in a more balanced way, not only through force, but also through services, political representation and recognition of local realities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In several West African countries, certain provinces or regions appear \u201cdisconnected\u201d from the rest of the national territory. Residents speak of \u201cabandoned\u201d or \u201cforgotten\u201d areas, \u201ccut off from the country\u201d. This situation is neither anecdotal nor solely linked to current security events: it results from a combination of historical, political, economic and military factors. Understanding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"acteur":[],"niveau":[175],"risque":[171],"thematique":[163],"zone":[143,144,145,146,148,149,150,151,152],"class_list":["post-77115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","niveau-introductory-level","risque-security-risks","thematique-governance-and-political-transitions","zone-benin","zone-burkina-faso","zone-cote-divoire","zone-guinea","zone-mauritania","zone-niger","zone-nigeria","zone-senegal","zone-togo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"acteur","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/acteur?post=77115"},{"taxonomy":"niveau","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/niveau?post=77115"},{"taxonomy":"risque","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/risque?post=77115"},{"taxonomy":"thematique","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematique?post=77115"},{"taxonomy":"zone","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahel.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/zone?post=77115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}