West African Studies An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel : Geography, Economics and Security.

254 Pages·2015·29.72 MB·English

by  OECD

West African Studies W
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An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel t A
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GeoGrAphy, economicS And Security a
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S West African Studies
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While the Sahara-Sahel region has experienced recurrent episodes of instability, the recent crises in Libya d
ie
and Mali have increased the level of violence. These two crises have reshaped the region’s geopolitical and s An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel
geographical dynamics. The current crises are cross-border and regional, and addressing them requires new
institutional responses. How can the countries that share this space – Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mali, Morocco,
Mauritania, Niger and Tunisia – in collaboration with other countries of the region, such as Nigeria, work
GeoGrAphy, economicS And Security
together towards its stabilisation and development?
Historically, the Sahara plays the role of intermediary between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Even
before Roman times, the area was criss-crossed by roads, principally serving a military use in this period.
Today, commercial and human exchange is vibrant, founded on social networks. These networks have
more recently been used by traffickers. Understanding the nature of this trafficking, the geographic and
organisational mobility of criminal groups, as well as migratory movements is of strategic importance. This
work aims to contribute towards this objective and to help inform the Sahel strategies of the European Union,
United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) in their attempts to
forge a lasting peace.
This Atlas proposes a cartographic and regional analysis of security and development issues. It provides
objective information for the necessary dialogue between regional and international organisations, states,
researchers and local stakeholders.
A
n
part i. reactivating a space of fragmented circulation A
t
Chapter 1. Sahara-Sahelian space and geography la
s
Chapter 2. Socio-economic indicators within Sahara-Sahel countries o
f
t
Chapter 3. Petroleum and networks of influence in the Sahara-Sahel h
e
S
part ii. Securing the Sahara-Sahel by integrating its social and spatial mobility a
h
Chapter 4. Ancient and new mobility in the Sahara-Sahel a
r
a
Chapter 5. Migration and the Sahara -
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Chapter 6. Nomadism and mobility in the Sahara-Sahel h
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Chapter 7. Borders, cross-border co-operation and freedom of movement in the Sahara-Sahel l G
Chapter 8. Security issues, movement and networks in the Sahara-Sahel e
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Chapter 9. Trafficking economies in the Sahara-Sahel r
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Chapter 10. An institutional point of view on the challenges of the Sahara-Sahel h
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Consult this publication on line at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264222359-en. r
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This work is published on the OECD iLibrary, which gathers all OECD books, periodicals and statistical databases.
Visit www.oecd-ilibrary.org for more information.
iSbn 978-92-64-22234-2
9HSTCQE*cccdec+
44 2014 01 1 p Club
SAHEL AND
WEST AFRICA
Secretariat
Secrétariat
du
Club
DU SAHEL ET DE
L'AFRIQUE DE L'OU EST

West African Studies
An Atlas
of the Sahara-Sahel
GEOGRAPHY, ECONOMICS AND SECURITY
Under the direction of Laurent Bossard
Club
SAHEL AND
WEST AFRICA
Secretariat
ThisworkispublishedundertheresponsibilityoftheSecretary-GeneraloftheOECD.The
opinionsexpressedandargumentsemployedhereindonotnecessarilyreflecttheofficial
viewsofOECDmembercountries.
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or
sovereigntyoveranyterritory,tothedelimitationofinternationalfrontiersandboundaries
andtothenameofanyterritory,cityorarea.
Pleasecitethispublicationas:
OECD/SWAC(2014),AnAtlasoftheSahara-Sahel:Geography,EconomicsandSecurity,WestAfrican
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264222359-en
ISBN978-92-64-22234-2(print)
ISBN978-92-64-22235-9(PDF)
Series:WestAfricanStudies
ISSN2074-3548(print)
ISSN2074-353X(online)
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ThisworkispublishedundertheresponsibilityoftheSecretary-GeneraloftheOECD.The Working together for regional integration
opinionsexpressedandargumentsemployedhereindonotnecessarilyreflecttheofficial
viewsofOECDmembercountries. The Sahel and West Africa Club Affairs; UEMOA: Commission of the West
(SWAC)/OECD is a group of West African African Economic and Monetary Union; United
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or
organisations, countries and international States: U.S. Agency for International Develop-
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The Club is the only international platform
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is to help build more effective policies to The European Union is an important partner of
Pleasecitethispublicationas:
OECD/SWAC(2014),AnAtlasoftheSahara-Sahel:Geography,EconomicsandSecurity,WestAfrican improve peoples’ living conditions within this the SWAC and contributes to the financing of
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264222359-en
of the 17 countries of ECOWAS, UEMOA and linked to the Global Alliance for Resilience – Sahel
CILSS. Based on dialogue and innovation, and West Africa (AGIR). The French Agency for
the Club facilitates co-ordination, conducts Development also contributes to the funding of
ISBN978-92-64-22234-2(print)
independent and forward-looking analysis, specific Club events.
ISBN978-92-64-22235-9(PDF)
and devises guidelines and policy tools for
Members and other stakeholders. Observers
Series:WestAfricanStudies Some 70 stakeholders participate in the As Observers, the African Union, the Canadian
ISSN2074-3548(print) Club’s platform: governments of West African Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and
ISSN2074-353X(online)
countries and of OECD member countries, Development, and the Network of Farmers’
regional organisations, professional associa- Organisations and Agricultural Producers of
tions and civil society groups, development West Africa (ROPPA) are closely associated
partners and research centres. with the Club.
Its Secretariat is based at the OECD, which
provides critical access to global fora within
which West Africa can make its voice heard.
Members
Members guide the strategic orientations and
approve the Programme of Work and Budget.
Austria: Federal Ministry for Europe,
Integration and Foreign Affairs; Belgium:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade
Photocredits:Cover©DanielKrüger/GrandKrü,Berlin.
and Development Co-operation; CILSS:
Executive Secretariat of the Permanent Inter-
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©OECD2014 Sahel; ECOWAS: Commission of the Economic For more information:
Community of West African States; France: www.oecd.org/swac
Youcancopy,downloadorprintOECDcontentforyourownuse,andyoucanincludeexcerptsfromOECDpublications,databasesand
multimediaproductsinyourowndocuments,presentations,blogs,websitesandteachingmaterials,providedthatsuitable Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International www.westafricagateway.org
acknowledgmentofthesourceandcopyrightownerisgiven.Allrequestsforpublicorcommercialuseandtranslationrightsshouldbe
Development; Luxembourg: Ministry of
[e-mail]hotocopyportionsofthismaterialforpublicorcommercialuseshallbe
addresseddirectlytotheCopyrightClearanceCenter(CCC)[email protected]çaisd’exploitationdudroitdecopie Foreign and European Affairs; Nether- Contact:
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lands (The): Ministry of Foreign Affairs; E-mail [email protected]
Switzerland: Federal Department of Foreign Telephone [phone]
An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel © OECD 2014 3
Foreword and authors
Foreword and authors

This Atlas is aligned with the priorities set the discussions underscored that these areas
by SWAC regional organisation members form part of larger networks of instability that
namely, the Economic Community of West require broadening the reflection process to
African States (ECOWAS), the West African include countries in West, Central and North
Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and Africa, such as Nigeria.
the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought This publication addresses security chal-
Control in the Sahel (CILSS). It also contributes to lenges in Sahara-Sahel areas resulting
achieving the objectives outlined in the OECD’s from the mobility characteristic of its
Programme of Work and Budget. territories and populations as well as the
The forward-looking and mapped analyses socio-economic networks that connect them.
of Sahara-Sahel areas presented in the Atlas is
conducted within the framework of the West SWAC Secretariat Editorial Team
African Futures (WAF) cycle of reflection for the Philipp Heinrigs [email protected]
2013–14 Programme of Work. Marie Trémolières [email protected]
The cycle is structured around: The maps presented in Chapter 1 were the
The SWAC Forum, held in November 2013 focus of exhaustive discussion and collabora-
in Abidjan during the 2nd Sahel and West tion between the SWAC Secretariat (especially
Africa Week. The Forum, organised under the Philipp Heinrigs and Laurent Bossard) and team
auspices of His Excellency Alassane Ouattara, at the ADESS (Planning, Development, Environ-
President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and ment, Health and Societies) Laboratory, the
Acting Chair of ECOWAS, brought together CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific
a representative panel of stakeholders Research) UMR (Joint Research Unit), Michel de
including senior officials, West African Montaigne-Bordeaux 3 University and University
ministers, representatives of regional and of Bordeaux Segalen. The maps in Part II were
international organisations, technical and created by the SWAC Secretariat in collaboration
financial partners, researchers, local elected with Daniel Krüger and Viet Hoa Le. A special
officials and business people. It provided thank you goes to the European Union (EEAS
an opportunity to engage in a dialogue on and EUSR) as well as to JRC for the creation of
Sahara-Sahel perspectives and the need for certain maps.
deeper regional co-operation between North,
West, and Central Africa for the long-term Assistants
stability of the region. More specifically, Nadia Hamel
the discussions centred on “security and Sylvie Letassey
development” initiatives, their consistency Matthew Stephenson
and their scope of action. While the areas
studied are shared by Algeria, Chad, Libya, Graphics
Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger and Tunisia, Daniel Krüger / Grand Krü [email protected]
4 An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel © OECD 2014
Foreword and authors
Foreword and authors

AUTHORS
Alain Antil is the Director of the Sub-Saharan Ali Bensaâd is a Lecturer and Researcher
Africa Programme at the IFRI (French Institute (HDR) at the University of Aix-Marseille. He
of International Relations). His specialties include contributed to Chapter 5: “Migration and the
Mauritania and security issues in the Sahel Sahara”.
region. He teaches at the Lille Institute of Political [email protected]
Studies and ISTOM, (School of International
Agro-Development) in Cergy-Pontoise. He is Laurent Gagnol is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the
co-author of a study on Maghreb-West African PACTE (Social Science Research Laboratory)
relations and has written reports for the NGO UMR at J. Fourier University in Grenoble. His
International Crisis Group, a number of French research addresses socio-spatial dynamics
ministries, as well as numerous publications within mobile populations in Sahara-Sahel
on Sahelian issues. He holds a PhD in Political areas (Chad, Morocco and Niger). Based on
Geography from the University of Rouen. He field research on the Touareg in Niger, his work
contributed to Chapter 9: “Trafficking econo- focuses on ways of adapting to climate change
mies in the Sahara-Sahel”. and the globalisation of nomads in the Sahara
[email protected] and the Sahel. He contributed to Chapter 6:
“Nomadism and mobility in the Sahara-Sahel”.
Benjamin Augé is an Associate Researcher with [email protected]
the Sub-Saharan Africa Programme at IFRI www.pacte-grenoble.fr/blog/membres/gagnol-laurent
(French Institute of International Relations), a
position he has held since June 2010. He holds a Philipp Heinrigs is a Senior Economist at the
PhD in Geography from the French Geopolitical Secretariat of the Sahel and West Africa Club
Institute (University of Paris 8), and is Editor in (SWAC)/OECD. He is co-author of the Settlement,
Chief of the Africa Energy Intelligence newsletter Market and Food Security report (OECD, 2013).
(Indigo Publications Group). He has also lectured He contributed to Chapter 2: “Socio-economic
at the École de Guerre (French Ministry of indicators within Sahara-Sahel countries”.
Defence Military College), Sciences-Po Paris, ENA [email protected]
(French National School of Administration) and
the University of Nouakchott (Mauritania). His Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou is a Political Scientist
research focuses on governance in the oil, gas, with a Doctorate (Politics of Oil and Identity
and electricity sectors in African countries and on Transformation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, 2005)
conflicts between local, national and international and Post-Doctoral Fellowships from Oxford
stakeholders over the control of oil-producing University. With over ten years’ experience
areas. He contributed to Chapter 3: “Petroleum in international development, she is currently
and networks of influence in the Sahara-Sahel”. a Policy Advisor at the OECD’s Development
[email protected] Co-operation Directorate. Her expertise has
An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel © OECD 2014 5
Foreword and authors

been the subject of numerous publications; University of Southern Denmark and a Visiting
including most recently “The political economy Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. A
of oil and rebellion in Nigeria’s Niger Delta” geographer by training, he is specialised in the
(ROAPE, 2013), for which she was awarded the study of cross-border trade, border markets,
Ruth First Prize in 2014. She currently sits on and border conflicts and terrorism in West
the editorial boards of Politique Africaine and Africa. Dr. Walther’s research has been funded
African Affairs, and is Joint Co-ordinator of the by the National Research Fund of Luxembourg,
UK Niger Delta Working Group. She contrib- the European Spatial Planning Observatory,
uted to Chapter 8: “Security issues, movement the European Commission, and the OECD. He
and networks in the Sahara-Sahel”. is Africa Editor of the Journal of Borderlands
[email protected] Studies. He contributed to Chapter 7: “Borders,
cross-border co-operation and freedom of
Denis Retaillé is a Professor of Geography at movement in the Sahara-Sahel” and Chapter 8:
the University of Bordeaux Montaigne, Director “Security issues, movement and networks in the
of the ADESS Joint Research Unit (CNRS), Sahara-Sahel”.
and Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Litera- [email protected]
ture and Human Sciences in Rouen. Since the
mid-1970s, his work has examined contact
between nomadic and sedentary peoples in the
Sahel; he has also studied globalisation since
the beginning of the 1990s. Since the early
2000s, his research and reflection have focused
on developing a theory of mobile space using
the concepts of nomadism to address contem-
porary world issues.
[email protected]
Antonin Tisseron holds a PhD in History and is
a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Institut
Thomas More. For the past several years, his
work on the Maghreb and Sahel has focused
on international relations and security issues
in these areas. He contributed to Chapter 4:
“Ancient and new mobility in the Sahara-Sahel”.
[email protected]
Olivier J. Walther is an Associate Professor at
the Department of Border Region Studies at the
6 An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel © OECD 2014
Foreword and authors

MAPS
Co-ordination of the graphic elements the field of data analysis and representation
in Chapter 1 “Sahara-Sahelian space and at the ADESS Joint Research Unit, where he
geography”: and Mathieu Noucher (Researcher at CNRS
Denis Retaillé and ADESS Joint Research Unit) co-ordinate
GRANIT (the Territorial Information Analysis
Sophie Clairet has a Doctorate in Geography, Research Group).
and has focused her research on representations,
especially in the media, and their use in
creating territories. She has used this expertise
in consulting activities, publications in interna-
tional relations (she was the Editor-in-Chief of
the magazine Diplomacy until 2012) and in her
blog (GeoSophie.eu - geopolitical landscapes).
Pierre-Henri Drevet holds a PhD in Engineering
and is a Contract Engineer with the CNRS. His
interests include spatial modelling of the origins
of the HIV-1 virus, particularly at the forest
threshold. He uses geomatic and mapping tools
in his other work, which addresses the dispersal
of international solidarity, plant health, etc.
Julie Pierson is a Geomatics Engineer. After
a brief tenure at BRGM (French Geological
and Mining Research Bureau), Julie Pierson
joined the CNRS and ADESS Joint Research
Unit where she develops programmes adapted
chiefly to environmental research. She develops
data bases that can be reused by a community
of researchers who have opted to share
information and use open-source software.
Olivier Pissoat is trained as a Geographer
and initially worked on mapping homicides in
Colombia (1980–2002). Hired by the CNRS in
2005, he now works as a Design Engineer in
An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel © OECD 2014 7
Contents
Contents

Abbreviations and acronyms 14
Preface 16
Executive Summary 22
Part I Reactivating a space of fragmented circulation
Chapter 1
Sahara-Sahelian space and geography 27
1.1 The Sahara delineated 28
1.2 The limits 31
1.3 The Sahara as a network 36
1.4 Route empires 39
1.5 States and borders 42
1.6 The impossible map 47
1.7 Natural resources 50
1.8 Migratory movements 55
1.9 Tourism 58
1.10 Conflict and instability 64
Notes 72
Bibliography 72
Chapter 2
Socio-economic indicators within Sahara-Sahel countries 75
2.1 Populations 77
2.2 Economy 86
Notes 91
Bibliography 91
Chapter 3
Petroleum and networks of influence in the
Sahara-Sahel 93
3.1 Oil companies in the Sahel 94
3.2 Remoteness 99
Notes 103
Bibliography 103
Part II Securing the Sahara-Sahel by integrating its social and spatial mobility
Chapter 4
Ancient and new mobility in the Sahara-Sahel 107
4.1 People, products and routes 108
4.2 Commerce under colonisation 111
4.3 Renewed trans-Saharan relations 116
Annex 4.A1 125
Notes 129
Bibliography 129
8 An Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel © OECD 2014