Transborder Crimes and the Challenges of Regional Integration in West Africa: Insights from the Nigeria-Benin Republic Borders

Abstract

Transborder crimes and the operation of criminal syndicates have emerged as major threats to security and efforts to advance integration in West Africa. The proliferation of transborder criminal syndicates and rising criminal activities has made member states take steps to curtail these growing challenges, sometimeswith unintended consequences on the free flow of factors of production as enshrined in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on Free Movement. Informed by the need to understand the challenges that transborder crimes pose within a specific context, this study examinestransborder criminal activities across the Nigeria-Benin Republic border. The study assesses three forms of criminal activities along the two countries’ borderlands and their implications for the security of the two countries concerned. The qualitative method was adopted, and data for the study was derived frommostly secondary and less primary sources. These criminal activities affect the national security of the two countries and impact efforts to advance integration in the sub-region. The study recommends the implementation of joint border security reforms.

Keywords

• Transborder crimes;
• criminal syndicates;.
• borderland;
• security;
• Nigeria;
• Benin Republic