Across several regions of Africa, the relationship between terrorism and illicit economies interacts with broader patterns of insecurity. In environments marked by fragile institutions, porous borders and expansive informal markets, violent extremist groups and criminal actors operate within overlapping spaces where the boundaries between legality and illegality are often blurred. These conditions create environments in which illicit economic systems can be exploited by violent extremist groups.
Dangerous Liaisons: Assessing the nexus between terrorism and criminal activities in Africa examines the interactions between terrorist actors and criminal economies, drawing on analysis of selected groups affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) and Al-Qaida. The study focuses in particular on West Africa, with field research conducted in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
While the notion of a “crime–terror nexus” has gained considerable traction in policy and academic discourse, empirical understanding remains uneven. Existing analyses often rely on fragmented evidence or broad generalisations that risk obscuring the diversity of local realities. In many of the contexts examined, illicit and informal economies are deeply embedded in social and economic life, functioning simultaneously as survival mechanisms, governance substitutes and channels for coercion and control. Violent extremist groups exploit these environments not only to generate revenue, but also to embed themselves within local economic and social networks, mobilize grievances linked to exclusion and weak governance, and reinforce alternative forms of legitimacy and influence. In some contexts, pre-existing social and kinship ties facilitate recruitment, logistics and local acceptance, allowing these groups to integrate into everyday community dynamics while strengthening their operational resilience. Within such settings, interactions between terrorist actors and criminal markets are rarely static or uniform, but instead evolve according to shifting incentives, power relations and territorial dynamics.
Rather than treating terrorism and organized crime as distinct or fully convergent phenomena, this report adopts a continuum-based approach that captures the diversity of their interactions. These range from opportunistic cooperation and parallel coexistence to competition and, in limited cases, deeper forms of convergence. Although in many contexts, these actors coexist without stable alliances, the absence of direct collaboration should not be interpreted as the absence of risk, as the simultaneous presence of criminal and extremist actors can further weaken already fragile environments. This analytical lens allows for a more nuanced understanding of how violent extremist groups embed themselves within existing economic structures, adapt to them, and in some cases reshape them to sustain their operational and strategic objectives.
By situating these dynamics within their broader political and socio-economic contexts, the report seeks to contribute to a more empirically grounded and policy-relevant understanding of the nexus between terrorism and crime in Africa. In doing so, it aims to support more targeted and context-sensitive responses that reflect the complexity of local realities and the evolving nature of illicit economies and violent extremism.
It emphasizes the importance of responses that go beyond exclusively securitized approaches and, instead, address the structural vulnerabilities that enable violent extremist groups to thrive. Strengthening local governance, improving oversight of vulnerable economic sectors, supporting sustainable livelihoods, addressing corruption and reinforcing community resilience emerge as critical elements for preventing the interactions between terrorism and criminal activities, while avoiding measures that may inadvertently deepen marginalization or undermine local coping mechanisms.
