Cattle rustling emerges as a major driver of instability across West and Central Africa

AFRICA – A growing wave of cattle rustling is fuelling insecurity, funding extremist groups, and undermining already fragile economies in West and Central Africa, according to a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).

The report, released in October, finds that livestock theft, long viewed as a rural livelihood threat, has evolved into a sophisticated criminal economy intertwined with terrorism, conflict, and illicit trade. 

It is now present in nearly a quarter of all illicit hubs mapped across the region and is common in two-thirds of the 23 hubs identified as most responsible for regional instability.

GI-TOC researchers highlight that cattle rustling has become a preferred revenue stream for violent extremist organisations (VEOs) operating across the Sahel. 

Groups such as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) reportedly smuggle “thousands of head of cattle, stolen from conflict hotspots in central Mali or northern Burkina Faso,” to markets in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. 

According to the report, intermediaries handle sales in the tri-border region, allowing militants to “exploit the main livestock markets in these coastal states.”

A similar pattern is observed in northeastern Nigeria, where the Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram benefits from cattle laundering. 

The report notes that “Maiduguri, the largest city in northeastern Nigeria, hosts a major regional cattle market frequented by traders from Cameroon, Chad and Niger, where cattle stolen by JAS members are sold through intermediaries.”

This illicit trade, analysts warn, provides armed groups with consistent income, enabling them to sustain operations, procure weapons and cement influence in hard-to-govern areas.

State-affiliated actors also implicated

The GI-TOC findings also show that cattle rustling is no longer confined to non-state armed groups. 

In Burkina Faso, the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP), a state-sponsored militia formed to combat insurgency, have “become key players in cattle rustling since 2024,” particularly in the southwest. 

Their activities reportedly extend into Côte d’Ivoire’s Bounkani region, where coercive tactics and destabilizing behaviour are raising alarms about potential spillover violence and increasing militia autonomy.

The report urges governments to rethink current strategies, warning that indiscriminate closures of livestock markets, sometimes used as an anti-terrorism measure, may do more harm than good. 

Instead, the authors argue that “regulations should be strengthened to mitigate the risk of stolen livestock being sold” and that investing in formal rural markets could help shift trade away from informal networks. 

Enhanced cooperation among states, pastoralist communities, and private sector actors is deemed essential to sever the economic ties between livestock and conflict.

Livestock contributes 10–15% of GDP in Sahelian countries and supports more than 80 million people across West Africa. 

With pastoralism so central to livelihoods, the report cautions that unchecked cattle rustling could deepen instability, disrupt food systems, and further weaken vulnerable border regions unless addressed through coordinated regional action.

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