Abstract
The attainment of the African Union’s goal of Africa’s economic development through regional cooperation is contingent on the unfettered mobility of human and natural resources and technical skills within the region. For this reason, the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons and other associated protocols were ratified by member States of the ECOWAS. Regrettably, member states of the ECOWAS are bedeviled with intractable conflicts, insurgencies and armed banditry accruable from their ungoverned porous borders. This study attempts a critique of Borderless Africa to show how the proliferation of ungoverned porous borders aids the influx of armed illegal immigrants to the ECOWAS member states and thereby precipitating armed conflicts and violent contestations with farming communities. Underpinned from the Human Security standpoint, this study interrogates the implications of the armed conflicts accruable from the influx of undocumented migrants on food security in the ECOWAS subregion.
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Notes
- 1.
The concept of Human Security was first mentioned in the 1994 annual Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
- 2.
Bukuru is an area that is known for its rich farming economy because of the Benue River which flows through the LGA which makes it attractive to herders.
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Ogunnubi, O., Idowu, D. (2023). Borderless Africa, Illegal Migration and Food Insecurity in West Africa. In: Okunade, S.K., Ogunnubi, O. (eds) ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement and the AfCFTA in West Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5005-6_8
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