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Analysis

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Acknowledgements

The illicit hub mapping project was developed by a core GI-TOC team led by Lyes Tagziria and Lucia Bird. This research would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of the GI-TOC research team, whose sustained efforts over many years have built the foundation for this work. We are also grateful to the consultants who shared their knowledge and networks, and to the many individuals who generously contributed their expertise and insights throughout the research process.

We wish to extend particular thanks to Flore Berger for her extensive contribution to the drafting of the report, and to Mark Shaw and Tuesday Reitano for their valuable reviews and guidance. We also thank the publications and communications teams for their efforts on this report and the wider set of illicit hub narratives, and Café.art.br and Claudio Landi for their outstanding work in developing the online illicit hub mapping tool.

Finally, we would like to pay tribute to José Luengo-Cabrera, whose expertise helped lay the foundations of the illicit hub mapping but whose humour and warmth was cherished most by all those who worked with him.

Sources for the external data used in the online tool include the Armed Conflict Location & Event Dataset Project (ACLED), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), World Bank, Natural Earth and University of Maryland/Global Forest Watch

ABOUT THE PROJECT

To confront the complex challenges of Transnational Organized Crime, the "Support to the Mitigation of Destabilizing Effects of Transnational Organised Crime (M-TOC)" combines traditional security responses with community-driven resilience measures, informed by cutting-edge research on the intersection of illicit economies and instability in the tri-border area of Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.

The "Support to the Mitigation of Destabilizing Effects of Transnational Organised Crime (M-TOC)" project is a project commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC), from 2024 to 2025.

ABOUT THE WEST AFRICA OBSERVATORY

The GI-TOC Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa, established in 2021, encompasses researchers working across wider West Africa and the Sahel. The Observatory works to shed light on the political economy of transnational organized crime in the region, focusing on the links between illicit markets, instability and conflict. The Observatory applies a partnership approach, working with and supporting civil society across the region. As part of this, the Observatory maps the hubs, routes and flows of illicit markets, and the key actors, assessing their implications for regional stability, conflict, governance and social tension in the region. The countries falling within the scope of the observatory are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

ABOUT THE GI-TOC

The GI-TOC is a network of professionals working on the front lines of the fight against the illicit economy and criminal actors. Through a network of global civil society observatories on the illicit economy, we monitor evolving trends and work to build the evidence basis for policy action, disseminate the expertise of our Network, and catalyze multisectoral and holistic responses across a range of crime types. With the Global Initiative's Resilience Fund, we support community activists and local non-governmental organizations working in areas where crime governance critically undermines people's safety, security and life chances.