Although transnational organised crime (ToC) has, for decades, been going on in the
three-border region spanning Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger (known as the LiptakoGourma), analyses show that socio-economic vulnerabilities and state criminalisation drive community involvement in the phenomenon. In addition, the phenomenon overlaps with other security threats such as violent extremism and various local conflicts. This policy brief scrutinises the critical need and approaches to engage local communities in combating transnational organised crime (ToC) in order to break the cross-border criminal systems operating in the Liptako-Gourma and defuse other security threats such as violent extremism and local conflicts it fuels.
