Mangan, Fiona and Matthias Nowak. 2019 ‘Key Arms-Trafficking Routes and Flow Patterns - Tri-Border Areas: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Mali.’ The West Africa–Sahel Connection: Mapping Cross-Border Arms Trafficking, pp. 7-8. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. 1 December

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In the tri-border areas of Burkina Faso–Côte d'Ivoire–Mali and Ghana–Côte d'Ivoire–Burkina Faso a number of key routes are used to smuggle licit and illicit goods of all kinds from one country to another. These goods include small amounts of arms concealed in cargo loads and transported primarily by motorcycles.

Key routes include Bondoukou–Bouna–Varalé–Doropo serving the southern region of Burkina Faso, including the city of Gaoua; routes that circumvent the Ivorian border posts at Léraba and Pogo, the Burkinabe post at Yendere, and the Malian post at Zégoua; 13 small crossing points close to Tingréla in northern Côte d'Ivoire; and key smuggling hubs in and around the towns of Bawku, Tumu, Hamile, Sampa, and Elubo in Ghana. These flows are much smaller than the other arms-trafficking routes studied, and could mostly be classified as being used for so-called 'ant' trafficking.

Ghana and Guinea are also frequently cited in field interviews as sources of arms and ammunition for small-scale traffickers, particularly small amounts of ammunition (especially hunting cartridges) and small arms (hunting rifles, craft weapons, and handguns).

In Ghana cross-border communal ties are an important element in local trafficking dynamics. The people of Hamile and Tumu, the main transit points to Burkina Faso in north-western Ghana, are culturally linked to communities in neighbouring Burkina Faso, sharing the same local dialect, culture, and a hybrid Ghanaian–Burkinabe identity. Cross-border trade also affects trafficking in the border town of Sampa in Ghana's Bono region. Cashew farmers frequently cross the border to Bondoukou in Côte d'Ivoire in the course of their day-to-day trading activities. The scale of movement at this border crossing makes it difficult for border officials to identify and intercept trafficked goods.

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