Rural Niger offers young men no way to make a living, forcing huge numbers to emigrate and others to turn to crime and extremism.
In February, a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said the desire for employment was the leading factor driving people to join violent extremist groups in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report drew on interviews with nearly 2,200 people in eight countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.
Sub-Saharan Africa is “the new global epicentre of violent extremism”, UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said, with 48 per cent of global terrorism deaths taking place there in 2021.
The UNDP’s findings echoed interviews done by The Irish Times in northeast Nigeria in late 2021.
A nearly 14-year-old Islamist insurgency continues to rage there, with much emphasis placed on militants’ desires to carve out a caliphate, but former members of the once Islamic State-aligned Boko Haram said they joined the group for economic and financial reasons.
Some even said that they would consider joining again if they had no other way to support themselves and their families. Officials have been warning about the dangers stemming from unemployment for years.
“Youth under 25 years of age form the largest demographic constituency in West Africa and the Maghreb and are disproportionately affected by the growing unemployment in the Sahel region.
Unemployed youth are particularly vulnerable to religious radicalisation,” said a 2014 submission to the UN Security Council. Since then, recruitment has continued along with violence.
The recent UN report made recommendations aimed at countering and preventing violent extremism, which included making a greater investment in basic services including child welfare, education; and quality livelihoods.
