In 2025, gold prices have soared, benefiting West African military juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger as they combat jihadist insurgencies and climate challenges. However, while they claim gold revenues enhance sovereignty, much of the wealth remains untraceable, with armed groups potentially profiting from the informal mining sector and civilian suffering increasing due to government tactics.
Explain It To Me Like I’m 5: In West Africa, countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are making a lot of money from gold mining, which helps their governments but also causes problems because some of that gold is connected to fighting and bad things happening to people.
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