Armed men on motorbikes keep conflict in motion in the Sahel

Parakou, Benin – Until a fewer years ago, the dependable of Iliyasu Yahuza’s matte achromatic Qlink X-Ranger 200 motorbike would bring the neighbourhood children retired into the street. They would wantonness their games and unreserved to the roadside, waving excitedly and shouting his name.

Now, they scatter and hide.

And it is not conscionable the children; crossed each walks of beingness successful the distant villages of bluish Benin, the rumble of a motorbike motor present stirs fearfulness and panic arsenic it’s go synonymous with equipped fighters roaming the region.

For Yahuza, a 34-year-old trader who has spent years navigating the bumpy roads betwixt distant farms and section markets, the power “cuts deep”.

His motorbike was erstwhile a awesome of occurrence successful his assemblage successful agrarian Brignamaro, immoderate 500km (310 miles) distant from the superior city, Porto-Novo. Now, helium feels it’s a liability that marks him arsenic a imaginable threat.

“People person begun seeing maine arsenic a subordinate of the equipped radical launching attacks successful this region,” Yahuza told Al Jazeera.

“I nary longer consciousness unafraid riding a motorbike.”

In caller years, motorcycles person go the preferred mode of transport for equipped groups operating not lone successful Benin, but crossed the Sahel from Burkina Faso to Mali to Niger. Fighters connected motorbikes person changed the look of conflict, experts say.

According to a 2023 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), motorbikes are “one of the astir wide trafficked commodities successful the Sahel”, profoundly embedded successful the region’s transgression economy, and “indispensable to the convulsive extremist equipped groups” operating successful West Africa’s borderlands.

In the process, nationalist sentiment towards these vehicles, and those who thrust them, has shifted, with a shadiness present formed implicit regular riders similar Yahuza.

Motorcycle taxi drivers hold for the postulation airy to crook greenish astatine a roundabout successful Ouidah, Benin [File: Sunday Alamba/AP]

Pride earlier the fall

Life successful Brignamaro utilized to determination to a antithetic bushed years ago, Yahuza remembers. Children’s laughter chased the echo of his Qlink X-Ranger – astatine that clip a rarity successful these parts – arsenic his peers looked connected successful admiration and delight.

The displacement began successful 2023, erstwhile astir 12 suspected equipped fighters, each mounted connected motorbikes, attacked his community.

They terrorised the colony and kidnapped a known businessman. Throughout that year, similar incidents rippled crossed bluish Benin’s provinces, from Alibori to Tanguita and Materi. The signifier was ever the same. Armed men would get fast, onslaught hard, and vanish into the scenery connected their versatile machines.

As a businessman dealing successful soya beans, maize, and groundnuts, Yahuza had chosen his motorbike for purely applicable reasons. The conveyance could navigate the unsmooth terrain connecting scattered farming communities, and would past longer than mean motorcycles.

“That was the large crushed I chose the motorbike. Also, it lasts longer than an mean motorcycle and for that, it takes astir 2 years earlier I alteration one,” helium explained.

But much recently, practicality has fixed mode to paranoia.

Security forces regularly halt Yahuza, demanding documentation and explanations. Even insignificant disagreements with neighbours tin instrumentality connected sinister undertones.

“The locals successful my assemblage are raising eyebrows astatine me. I could retrieve having a insignificant misunderstanding with a colleague, and helium was speedy to illustration maine arsenic a militant,” helium recounted.

Democratic Forces of Syria troops thrust with ISIL fighters held arsenic prisoners successful Syria successful 2016. Toyota pick-up trucks were synonymous with equipped groups during Syria’s warfare [File: Rodi Said/Reuters]

Weapon of choice

Much similar the Toyota pick-up trucks that became synonymous with ISIL (ISIS) fighters successful Syria and Iraq much than a decennary ago, motorbikes person emerged arsenic the tactical conveyance of prime for Sahelian fighters.

Groups similar al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), with an estimated 6,000 fighters forming the region’s astir heavy equipped rebel force, person perfected the creation of motorcycle warfare. Fast, nimble, and casual to conceal, these bikes alteration hit-and-run tactics perfectly suited to the Sahel’s vast, sparsely populated terrain.

In aboriginal 2025 alone, JNIM fighters launched a coordinated run of attacks: 30 soldiers killed successful Benin, much than 50 radical adjacent Kobe successful Mali, 44 worshippers successful Niger’s Fambita, and 200 troops astatine Burkina Faso’s Djibo subject outpost. In each assault, motorbikes provided the velocity and astonishment that made these attacks possible.

“Motorbikes person go a captious mobility instrumentality for terrorists, including bandits crossed the Sahel,” explained Timothy Avele, a counterterrorism adept and managing manager of Agent-X Security Limited.

The entreaty is multifaceted, according to the expert. “Concealment becomes easier” erstwhile fighters tin scatter and fell their vehicles. The Sahel’s challenging terrain, with godforsaken expanses, dense forests, and mountainous regions, “favours two-wheeled transport implicit larger vehicles”. Perhaps astir importantly, the economics enactment successful the fighters’ favour.

“Another cardinal origin is the little substance outgo utilizing motorbikes for their operations and mobility compared to, say, Hilux trucks,” Avele added.

People thrust motorcycles astatine a engaged intersection adjacent Dantokpa Market successful Cotonou [File: David Gnaha/AFP]

Built to last

In the store of Abdulmajeed Yorusunonbi successful Tchatchou, immoderate 510km (317 miles) from Porto-Novo, the 31-year-old mechanic swears by the durability of these machines. As a section mechanic, helium sees firsthand wherefore equipped groups favour these vehicles implicit mean motorcycles.

“The lone elemental responsibility motorbikes sometimes get is level tires. It’s lone connected uncommon occasions that you volition spot the motor needing a repair. Their durability is 2nd to none,” Yorusunonbi noted.

This reliability makes them cleanable for rebel operations, wherever mechanical nonaccomplishment could mean seizure oregon death. But it besides means that erstwhile acquired, these vehicles stay successful the hands of equipped fighters for years, multiplying their tactical value.

Like galore successful his trade, Yorusunonbi has developed his ain informal screening strategy to filter retired unscrupulous clients. He watches for telltale signs – customers who wage successful currency without haggling, those who debar oculus contact, oregon groups arriving together. But successful a portion wherever poorness is wide and galore morganatic customers stock these aforesaid traits, certainty remains elusive.

The intelligence interaction connected communities has been profound. Yaru Mako, 41, a husbandman successful Kerou, 482km (300 miles) from Porto-Novo, told Al Jazeera helium present forces himself to judge that whoever drives a motorbike has affiliations with the equipped groups. “Because successful each the cases of attacks we person had and heard, the perpetrators ever utilized motorbikes. Mostly, they are 2 persons per motorbike,” helium explained.

This suspicion has existent consequences. In aboriginal 2024, Yahuza recovered himself detained for hours by soldiers successful Kerou who questioned his individuality and motives. Only his section connections saved him from a worse fate.

“I was fortunate that I cognize galore radical who decently identified maine arsenic an guiltless person,” helium said.

Junaidu Woru, a Tanguita resident, voices what galore present believe: that non-fighters should wantonness motorbikes wholly for their ain safety.

“Innocent radical should debar utilizing those bikes for their ain safety. Because erstwhile an onslaught happens, and an guiltless idiosyncratic drives astir the country astatine that peculiar time, they tin beryllium mistaken for a militant,” helium warned.

A antheral sits connected his motorbike astatine the main marketplace successful the municipality of Agadez, Niger. Motorbikes are “one of the astir wide trafficked commodities successful the Sahel”, researchers accidental [File: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters]

The underground economy

The travel of motorbikes into the hands of equipped groups follows analyzable routes done West Africa’s porous borders. Benin, erstwhile a large importer of motorcycles, saw its authoritative commercialized disrupted successful 2022 erstwhile caller taxes were imposed, including higher VAT rates and import levies.

Before that, motorcycles were exempt from import duties. The authorities aboriginal imposed customs levies to boost home revenue, a fiscally driven move. However, the argumentation spurred increased smuggling done borderline hotspots similar Malanville and Hillacondji, raising information concerns astir untracked vehicles perchance reaching transgression groups successful the Sahel.

According to traders successful bluish Benin, these measures person pushed the commercialized underground, with buyers progressively sourcing bikes from neighbouring countries and smuggling them crossed borders. The motorcycles participate done assorted routes; from Nigeria crossed the bluish borderline into Niger, oregon done Beninese territory, wherever they are loaded onto pirogues and transported upstream connected the River Niger.

In Parakou’s markets, Zubair Sabi sells motorbikes similar Yahuza’s Qlink X-Ranger 200 for astir 900,000 CFA francs ($1,590). Some models fetch much than 1 cardinal CFA ($1,770), portion others merchantability for arsenic debased arsenic 750,000 CFA ($1,330), prices that enactment them wrong scope of well-funded equipped groups.

“As a businessman, each I’m funny successful is selling my goods,” Sabi said, earlier acknowledging the motivation complexity of his position. “I don’t caput verifying the individuality of the lawsuit earlier selling to them. But I can’t truly accidental who precisely is buying the bikes oregon what they are utilizing them for.”

Like different traders, Sabi has implemented informal checks, asking for identification, noting suspicious bulk purchases, oregon refusing income to chartless customers arriving successful groups. Yet, helium admits, these measures are acold from foolproof.

Governments crossed the Sahel person responded with blunt instruments, with astatine slightest 43 motorcycle bans having been recorded since 2012, according to GI-TOC. Yet these sweeping restrictions often wounded civilians much than equipped fighters, cutting disconnected agrarian communities from markets, clinics and schools.

For traders similar Yahuza, the concern presents an intolerable dilemma. Without his motorbike, helium cannot scope the distant farms wherever farmers merchantability their produce. With it, helium risks being mistaken for the precise criminals terrorising his community.

“It’s not conscionable astir riding immoderate more,” helium reflected. “It’s astir what radical deliberation erstwhile they spot you connected it.”

This nonfiction is published successful collaboration with Egab.