Daily News has reported, via its official X handle, a chilling revelation that Ghana’s bustling cattle markets have become a cash machine for terror groups operating across the Sahel.
What once was a lifeline for butchers, brokers, and herders has now turned into a shadow economy fueling extremist violence in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
For decades, cattle from Burkina Faso crossed into northern Ghana for trade. But in recent years, sellers in the market have been offloading livestock at suspiciously low prices—sometimes for half the value—raising alarms that much of the stock is stolen.
“In the past, there was sometimes stolen livestock in the market,” a butcher identified as Endinene told The New Humanitarian. “But it was small amounts, and not frequent. However, since the war began, everything has changed.” Today, he estimates that half of the cattle he buys are stolen, the sellers eager to convert rustled animals into quick cash.
Cattle rustling is no longer petty theft—it has evolved into one of the most lucrative sources of funding for jihadist groups. Extremists loot herds under the guise of Islamic charity zakat, load them onto trucks, and funnel them into Ghana’s markets, where the animals are slaughtered, sold, and processed.
The proceeds buy weapons, fuel, and motorbikes—the very tools insurgents use to wage war against rural communities. A Fulani herder, identified as Mohammed, recalled how in October 2023, eight armed men on motorcycles stormed his pasture near Biyanga, demanding all the cattle from six herders. The men, he said, were fighters from Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), one of the most feared terror coalitions in the Sahel.
But JNIM isn’t acting alone. Fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) also profit from cattle raids, as do elements of Burkina Faso’s state-backed Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP). In some cases, militia members loot herds from villages they accuse of supporting JNIM, or they launder stolen cattle through Ghanaian markets.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) has traced a direct correlation between rising extremist violence and the surge in cattle theft, warning that this “alignment of interests between economic actors in coastal states and conflict-related actors in the Sahel entrenches instability and undermines peace.”
Before the jihadists’ arrival in Burkina Faso in 2017, livestock accounted for 10% of the nation’s GDP. The country was home to 9.6 million cattle, 15 million goats, and 10 million sheep.
Now, the picture is grim. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that over 8 million head of livestock have been stolen since the insurgency began. In southwest Burkina Faso, 70% of livestock has disappeared—wiped out by raids that leave herders destitute and entire rural economies in ruins.
The losses stretch beyond the farm: cattle once supplied milk, cheese, hides for leather, and dung for fertilizer. Their disappearance strips communities of food, income, and farming productivity.
“Being a herder today is almost impossible,” said Flore Berger, a senior analyst with GI-TOC’s Sahel observatory. “Keeping larger herds is definitely more of a challenge and a hassle than a benefit.”
Beyond economics, the cattle trade crisis erodes trust in governments already struggling to contain jihadist violence. It drives wedges between ethnic groups, turning neighbor against neighbor, while empowering extremists who present themselves as alternative authorities.
“This makes actors like JNIM stronger in the long run,” Berger warned, underscoring how a simple cow has become a weapon of war and a currency of terror.
As cattle markets in Ghana boom with cheap sales, the shadow of stolen livestock stretches across West Africa—a reminder that what fuels a butcher’s blade in the market may also be fueling the gunfire echoing across the Sahel.
PIONEER NEWS 