The main objective of this study is to identify impediments or information that affect problems associated with arrival time, which in the long run constitutes mobility challenges. Transport challenges exist in the Chad Basin due to the geography of transport, flow of immigrants which is always examined as a strong factor for the growth of conflicts (insurgency and other crisis). The Chad Basin encourages the growth of various groups for agriculture and commerce. The dynamism of Lake Chad had introduced conflicts which had changed individual transport behaviour and risks over the years, and reduction in logistic management – cross-border trade, an important factor for growth in trade for Lake Chad Basin Countries. Estimated predictors using the multinomial marginal change shows that there may be gains in access but the changing structure-the terrain of the region and current trends in security concerns has had effects on mobility challenges, especially due to unmaintained roads, high travel insecurity as a result of crisis and insurgency, high travel cost and longer travel time. We recommend that priorities of government in the Lake Chad Basin should gradually change from funding to end the insurgency and rehabilitation of victims to road rehabilitation, to remove all barriers to mobility challenges as a results of impassable roads and closed roads, high security travel risks and low level of cross-border trade in the region attributed to road conditions amongst others.

Eurocentric approaches to migration management dominate regional and domestic policymaking on human mobility in Africa. The obstruction of the historical Sahel-Maghreb migration exchange system and protracted human security challenges intensify irregular migration in the Sahel (a semiarid belt separating North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa). Consequently, the trafficking and smuggling of migrants across the Sahel-Maghreb and the Mediterranean Sea en route to Europe, have compelled European-led migration containment measures. This aggravates humanitarian crisis, impeding mobility, and stimulating regional development challenges in Africa. The thematic analysis of qualitative data (empirical and secondary) by the study examines the causality of irregular migration and regional security in the Sahel-Lake Chad corridor. It deconstructs human security and geopolitics as critical elements for understanding the narratives of Africa's migration crises. Therefore, a holistic regional security-development strategy is suggested toward effective migration governance in the Sahel and harnessing the potentials of human mobility in Africa.

In conflict prone situations access to markets is deemed to be necessary to restore economic growth and generate the preconditions for peace and reconstruction. Hence the rehabilitation of damaged transport infrastructure has emerged as an overarching investment priority amongst donors and governments. There is, however, little theoretical work or empirical evidence to determine whether such investments are effective in fragile situations when the risks of reversion to conflict are high. This paper attempts to fill this gap. The analysis brings together two distinct strands of literature - one on the effects of conflict on welfare and the other on the economic impact of transport infrastructure. The theoretical model explores how transport infrastructure affects conflict incidence and welfare when selection into rebel groups is endogenous. We test the implications of the model using data from the Democratic Republic of Congo, an economy that has been in an almost perpetual state of conflict for decades. We address the familiar problems of the endogeneity of transport costs and conflict using a novel set of instrumental variables. For transport costs we develop a new instrument termed the “natural-historical path”, which measures the most efficient travel route to a market, taking into account topography, land cover, and historical caravan routes. Recognizing the imprecision in measuring the geographic impacts of conflict we develop a spatial kernel density function to proxy for the incidence of conflict. To account for its endogeneity, we instrument for conflict with ethnic fractionalization and distance to the eastern border. Acknowledging that no measure of welfare is perfect, a variety of indicators of well-being are used: a wealth index, a poverty index and local GDP. The results suggest that, in most situations, reducing transport costs has the expected beneficial impacts on all the measures of welfare. However, when there is intense conflict, improvements in infrastructure may not have the anticipated benefits. The results suggest the need for more nuanced strategies that take account of varying circumstances and consider actions that jointly target governance with construction activities.

Since over a decade of conflicts in the Lake Chad Basin region, different measures have been adopted to regulate the mobility of displaced persons in border cities. Mubi—like other transit sites—is both a place of care and control, of incentivization and eviction and of inclusion and exclusion. To nuance these contradictions, I argue that we might have to pay attention to arrival practices in transit sites, particularly the encounter with infrastructures, which are intertwined and profoundly co-constitutive of the displaced persons’ realities. In transit sites, arrival is practised and lived temporally and relationally among the displaced persons, despite the conditions of exile and immobility. Urban infrastructures (such as marketplaces, transit camps and living rooms) transform and enact the strategy adopted by the displaced persons to navigate daily life and to ‘move on’ from conditions of exile and confinement. Moving on, in this sense, is a strategy to overcome the disruption o...

A community based qualitative study was conducted to assess mobility, conflict and the mechanisms of managing conflict in three selected sites in the western border areas of Afar region namely Kalkalsa, Finto and Garriro. The first two sites are found in Awra District and the latter one is located in Chifra District of Afar region. The study focused on mobility driven resource based conflict between the local community and their neighbours. Data was collected from March to April, 2017 using interviews. The study participants were 120 beneficiaries of GIZ run environmental conservation projects in the aforementioned areas. The collected data was thematically analyzed and the results showed that forced mobility is a response to climate change in which the communities of Kalkalsa and Finto move northward towards Yalo and Teru and Megale during periods of difficulty. On the other hand, communities of Garriro move Westwards to Amhara Region and Eastwards to Asaita and Afambo. Mobility is often attached to conflict since it comes in to play with basic resource. Resource based conflicts are prevalent in the study sites some of which have resulted in loss of human and animal life. The natures of conflicts vary from one site to another. Unlike in Kalkalsa and Finto, the conflict in Garriro is old existing and serious. It has also an inter-ethnic mode. Land and water are the key factors of this inter-ethnic conflict. In an effort to handle such like consequences, communities have instituted formal and informal channels of conflict resolution. The intra-group conflicts of the Afar pastoralists are solved by indigenous mechanism of conflict resolution. Whereas the inter-ethnic and cross border conflicts are dealt by joint (formal and customary) institutions which apply different techniques. This new trend of integration between formal and informal channels is important and needs to be strengthened. The political actors in each part should work pro-actively so as to control the emerging conflict in the border between Afar and Amhara where the study sites are located.

From the Sahel to the coast, West Africa is experiencing a variety of environmental change impacts, whether resulting from slow-onset changes or sudden shocks. They are significantly influencing migration patterns in and out of West Africa. In this region where natural resources form the foundation of livelihoods and food security (fishing and agriculture), the relationship between environmental changes and socioeconomic vulnerabilities is of particular concern. Environmental degradation affects populations' vulnerability and resilience capacity in complex ways. The presence of multiple environmental trends and shocks varies geographically. While desertification and droughts are of prime importance for some, floods, coastal erosion, and sea level rise are the main hazards for others. Even within local populations affected by the same climatic threats, their vulnerability and likelihood to migrate are affected by their socioeconomic status, their dependence on natural resources, and their demographic characteristics. Given the differentiated vulnerabilities and capacities for resilience, policy must be adapted and implemented according to particular populations and needs. Policy makers must also consider vulnerability as it is perceived by those affected. Therefore, environmental mobility cannot be treated as a strictly rational behaviour based on actual vulnerability. Local populations must be educated about current and expected changes to their natural environments to facilitate better-informed mobility decisions. Migration can also offer a significant tool with which local populations can increase their resilience to socio-environmental changes. Building infrastructure and establishing protection mechanisms for migrants and displaced persons is a necessary step in mitigating future risk. Regional authorities must work together to build the resilience of sending communities to climatic shocks, but they must also facilitate migration as an adaptation strategy by recognizing the development potential of remittances. These policy interventions may help decrease the potential for the creation of “trapped” populations, be they trapped in areas of origin, in transit, or in destination areas.

The Lake Chad Basin region has experienced a steep increase in violence and instability since 2010, associated with ethnic identity conflict, ecological degradation, and insurgency. This article explores the association between the activities of insurgency groups-focussing on the perpetration of violence against civilians and state actors-and agropastoral conflict, against a background of ecological stresses in this region. The article finds a pattern of close spatial and temporal proximity between agropastoral conflict and insurgency violence, suggesting that there is a significant intersection and overlap between socioeconomic grievances, compounded by ecological stresses, and violent instability.