How it fuels conflict in West Africa’s Sahel region

It has been 12 months for gold. A number of turbulent occasions within the international financial system has pushed up costs for the glittery commodity to file highs in 2025.

In a world of tariffs and worldwide battle, gold appeals to buyers as one of many few remaining steady property. Everybody needs a bit of the motion, from central banks to massive establishments like hedge funds, and retail buyers. However few know the place their gold comes from, or a lot in regards to the conflicts it might be fuelling within the nations the place it’s mined.

For the governments of West Africa’s Sahel area, the stakes are even greater. Gold is a lifeline for the army juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, who’re beleaguered by jihadist insurgencies, regional isolation, and the ravages of local weather change.

“As a result of gold costs have been at a historic excessive… the army governments are hoping that they may have the ability to profit instantly,” Beverly Ochieng, a senior researcher at international consultancy agency Management Dangers, advised the BBC.

Collectively, the three Sahel states produce round 230 tonnes of gold per 12 months, in accordance with the World Gold Council’s estimates, or about $15bn (£11bn) on the present market charge.

A scarcity of information for artisanal and small-scale gold mining implies that this determine might be an underestimate.

The mixed gold manufacturing in these three states surpasses every other nation in Africa, making the Sahel area a significant international contributor to the gold market.

The governments say that the proceeds from the profitable sector are benefitting residents by elevated “sovereignty” – although Russian companies are growing their stake within the business on the expense of Western-owned companies.

For instance, Mali’s junta chief Gen Assimi Goïta laid the foundation stone last month for a gold refinery, by which a Russian conglomerate, the Yadran Group, could have a minority stake. The refinery will reportedly create 500 direct jobs and a couple of,000 oblique jobs.

Burkina Faso can also be constructing its first-ever gold refinery, and has arrange a state-owned mining firm, requiring international companies to offer it a 15% stake of their native operations and to switch abilities to Burkinabé individuals.

Pretend AI media campaigns have even been launched to have fun the nation’s charismatic 37-year-old army ruler Capt Ibrahim Traoré for commanding such an necessary income stream for the nation.

“Mining gold from deepest grime. However souls are wealthy and true,” croons an AI-generated Rihanna in a single latest music, pouring her silky, auto-tuned reward on Capt Traoré.

The fact may be very totally different, in accordance with Ms Ochieng, who defined that Burkina Faso and its neighbours want fast money to fund counterinsurgency campaigns.

Within the case of Mali, a lot of this has been outsourced to Russian mercenaries, together with the Wagner Group and its successor, Africa Corps, which falls beneath the command of Russia’s defence ministry.

Africa Corps has been concerned in army coaching in Burkina Faso, however the junta formally denies its presence.

Though public spending transparency within the nations is poor, the governments are thought to dedicate massive parts of their budgets to nationwide safety.

Army spending in Mali trebled since 2010, amounting to 22% of the nationwide price range by 2020.

The governments are preventing jihadist teams linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS).

However marketing campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Malian authorities and the Wagner Group of committing atrocities in opposition to civilians, together with illegal killings, abstract executions, and torture.

It has documented comparable atrocities by Burkina Faso’s army and its allied militias.

For his or her companies, the Wagner Group and now Africa Corps are sometimes paid instantly in gold or in mining concessions, in accordance with Alex Vines of the London-based Chatham Home think-tank.

“Little or no [of the gold revenues] will trickle right down to Malians and Burkinabés,” he advised the BBC, including that the truth is the armed insurgents themselves could also be benefiting from gold.

Because the coup in Mali in 2021, brutal authorities techniques in opposition to communities suspected of harbouring or sympathising with jihadists have elevated, pushing extra civilians to hitch the very teams they’re preventing.

Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate which is probably the most energetic jihadist group within the area, staged an unprecedented variety of assaults concentrating on Burkina Faso army in the course of the first half of 2025, an indication of the group’s rising energy.

The armed teams are additionally actually cashing in on the elevated international urge for food for gold.

A big proportion of gold mining within the Sahel is from the artisanal and small-scale sector, which is usually casual, that means it takes place on unlicensed and undeclared websites away from authorities oversight, according to a 2023 report on gold mining within the Sahel by the United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime (UNODC).

Armed teams, together with jihadist teams, and Sahel governments are in competitors for management over many of those small-scale gold mines.

Gold offers an necessary income stream for militant teams, which seem like increasing their territorial affect in each Mali and Burkina Faso.

The UNODC believes that almost all gold from such a mining results in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a world centre for gold refining and buying and selling.

“You do see overlap of violent extremist teams shifting onto artisanal manufacturing areas for management,” mentioned Dr Vines.

The worldwide spike in gold costs could also be prolonging and exacerbating battle within the Sahel – however, sadly for the diggers in artisanal gold mines, it has not led to house owners growing their wages.

One gold miner in Mali’s northern Kidal area agreed to answer written questions from the BBC on situation of anonymity, for worry of his security.

He estimated that, on a “good day”, he earns 10,000 to twenty,000 CFA francs, or roughly $18 to $36 (£13 to £26).

The quantity he’s paid has not elevated alongside international gold costs, he mentioned.

“Costs went up, however the additional revenue goes to mine house owners… It is dangerous and unsure, however for many people, it is the one possibility,” he added.

Dr Vines, who previously labored as a blood diamond investigator for the UN, is worried that gold has turn out to be Africa’s new principal battle commodity.

He famous that gold has not acquired the identical worldwide consideration as diamonds, which fuelled bloodshed in a number of African states all through the twentieth Century, particularly in the course of the Nineties.

Intervention by human rights teams and the UN led to the institution of the Kimberley Course of Certification Scheme in 2003, which did a lot to finish the sale of so-called “blood diamonds” on the open market.

However makes an attempt to crack down on “blood gold” have been much less profitable.

That is partly as a result of an absence of unified moral requirements. The London Bullion Market Affiliation (LBMA), a significant authority within the gold market, requires refiners to adjust to requirements based mostly on pointers set by a world physique, the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Growth (OED).

The UAE’s enforcement of those rules has traditionally been patchy.

In 2021, the nation introduced its personal requirements for moral gold mining – nonetheless, the framework stays voluntary. The difficulty of enforcement has prompted tensions previously between the Gulf state and the LBMA.

Tracing expertise represents one other hurdle.

“There isn’t a ‘DNA testing’ for gold. With loads of effort, you may hint diamonds earlier than they get polished and minimize… However I have not seen methods of tracing the origins of a gold nugget,” Dr Vines mentioned.

Gold is smelted early on within the worth chain, making it almost unattainable to hint and hook up with potential battle zones, he defined.

Dr Vines believes that it’s probably that some blood gold from the Sahel results in UK markets.

“[Gold] will get smelted in [the] UAE, then goes onto the jewelry manufacturing business, or into dentistry, or bullion. A few of it clearly comes into the UK. And as soon as it’s right here, there isn’t any means of testing what it’s.”

One more reason that it is going to be tough to repeat the successes of the Kimberley course of, in accordance with Dr Vines, is as a result of the certification system was not designed to cope with state governments.

“Kimberley was designed to cope with armed non-state actors in locations like Sierra Leone and Liberia,” he mentioned.

For now, gold’s significance for Sahel governments and the patchy enforcement of moral gold requirements imply that the commodity is more likely to proceed altering arms, no matter its origin.

Sadly for some communities within the Sahel, which will imply paying for the commerce in blood.