The imperfect co-production of security: tracing the emergence and development of community-based armed groups in Mali & Burkina Faso between the 1990s and 2022

Abstract

The year 2022 marks the tenth anniversary of violent conflict in the central Sahel, characterized by escalating and increasingly generalized violence. So-called self-defense groups are taking on a growing role in Burkina Faso’s and Mali’s security landscape, as both states are struggling to counter a “jihadist” insurgency. Based on a literature review complemented by several expert interviews, this thesis contextualizes the current proliferation of these groups by examining their emergence and development since the 1990s through the typology of community-based armed groups. It demonstrates that such groups in Mali and Burkina Faso have developed as co-providers of security within a hybrid governance structure, in which the state’s historically limited presence in rural areas has stimulated local communities to form their own security initiatives. Community-based armed groups emerged in the 1990s among local insecurities related to insurgencies and crime, and have since transformed in line with evolving security issues. With their increasing prominence in the conflict with jihadist groups, it is crucial that security strategies in the Sahel are informed by an improved understanding of the role these groups play in the imperfect co-production of security in Mali and Burkina Faso.