Self-Defense Militias in Africa… Map of Deployment, Their Motives, and Potential Dangers

Abstract:

The spread of self-defence militias across Africa in recent years clearly highlights the declining role of the state and its decades-long structural crisis, particularly in the security realm. The ascent of these armed groups has emerged as one of the most critical developments on the contemporary African scene. While community-based armed mobilisations are not entirely new to the continent, their contemporary resurgence remains closely tied to counter-terrorism efforts and armed organizational movements in regions such as East and West Africa, including the Sahel and Sahara.

These militias pose a mounting threat to regional stability. Exploiting institutional fragility, they often establish authority over territories under their control, creating parallel governance structures that directly contest state sovereignty. Such dynamics inevitably trigger new cycles of armed confrontation, severely compromising the security and political order of affected nations.

Furthermore, these groups risk evolving into localized insurgencies driven by perceptions of marginalisation, socio-economic grievances, and competition over natural resources. Capitalising on arms and resources originally provided by state authorities, their expansion threatens to transform auxiliary defence arrangements into prolonged domestic armed conflicts.