Risks arising from political instability need to be factored into business dealings with companies based in West Africa.Mounir Siaplay and Eric Werker, writing for the Brookings Institute think tank, point out that the five successful West African coups over the last three years are more than the region has experienced in the last 30 years. Armed groups, violent extremists and criminal networks in the Sahel and West Africa have forced the closure of more than 10 000 schools, with millions of children affected, and some 7 000 health centres, according to Giovanie Biha of the UN Office for the region. At the same time, countries along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea had also seen an increase in attacks against their territories, threatening transport routes to landlocked nations further north, she told the United Nations Security Council in a briefing earlier this year.Fuelling the insecurity is West Africa’s youthful population of 429 million, which is growing at 2.5% a year, according to the UN population division.Unemployment is, however, under control. Statista estimated the unemployment rate at around 6.8%, which is expected to drop to 6.5% during 2023.Regional stability had been deteriorating despite the presence of other external military forces, including the United Nations stabilisation force in Mali, the European Union Task Force under the French command, and the combined Sahel states’ “Joint Force”, Biha told the Security Council.
