About the author

Kars de Bruijne is the Head of the Sahel Program and a Senior Research Fellow with the Clingendael’s Conflict Research Unit.

Thanks go to various anonymous contributors as well as Grace Ellis, Andrew Lebovich, Ladd Serwat and Heni Nsaibia and participants to the “Transnational Organized Crime & Instability Dialogues: The role of National Parks in illicit economies and conflict dynamics” of the Global Initiative in November 2022, for their input. Special thanks to the people at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset Project (ACLED) for data-sharing and continued collaboration.

Photo credits

© Julien Gerard