Owusu on Africa: Africa’s border economies need to be kept safe

By Fidel Amakye Owusu

Anytime the boundaries of Africa are discussed, the Berlin Conference of 1884/1885 emerges.

The conference organized by Europe and hosted by the powerful Otto von Bismarck was to bring some “order” among European powers concerning their African interests that had become a factor of friction therein.

Across the Mediterranean, however, the conference resulted in the division of nations between and among different colonies with different colonial policies. For example, the Ewe nation of West Africa was divided under British, German and French authorities in present-day Ghana, Togo and Benin.

While de jure borders remain in place and are jealously protected by independent African states, interactions between people on the opposite sides of borders have remained active. Even when frictions exist between states, the people have crossed boundaries at will.

This has created robust “border economies” that are often distinct from the usual trade between states. These have for decades become lifelines for millions. The borders between Togo and Ghana, Rwanda and Burundi and Tanzania and Mozambique are examples.

Threats

With millions depending on these economies, recent threats to them require regional and continental attention.

Firstly, the increasing threat of extremism to border economies is worrying. Terror organizations, to achieve composite threats and take advantage of hard borders between states, operate closer to border regions.

From Cabo Delgado in Mozambique (close to Tanzania), through Eastern DR Congo (close to Uganda) to the Lake Chad Basin, terror groups are disrupting border economies.

Also, drug epidemics (increasingly becoming a bane to African populations) have more impact on border economies. With the porous boundaries and compromised entry points, illicit drugs on their way to major urban centers are also traded and used in border economies. The toll on the growing youth population is enormous.

Also troubling is the horizontal proliferation of illicit arms across borders. While arms trafficking across borders is not a recent canker, it has worsened at a time when Africa faces instability and insecurity. This makes border populations targets for the respective state securities—disruptive of local economies.

With the African Continental Free Trade Area and other regional integration protocols, these challenges hinder continental efforts towards economic development.

Apart from the need to engage the various local stakeholders of border regions and the provision of socio-economic development to these areas, the adoption of modern technology as a means to limit the activities of illicit traders and extremists could help change the negative trend.

Fidel Amakye Owusu is an International Relations and Security Analyst. He is an Associate at the Conflict Research Consortium for Africa and has previously hosted an International Affairs program with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). He is passionate about Diplomacy and realizing Africa’s global potential and how the continent should be viewed as part of the global collective.