Our regular contributor about auto-crime and theft prevention, Dr Ken German, ahead of the IAATI UK conference at Toyota in Derbyshire on May 8 writes about the stolen motorcycle trade in Africa.
While many of Africa’s 418 ports around its 18,000-mile coastline have been in the news recently for being the recipients for many of the world’s stolen cars, believed to be in excess of half a million last year, the focus on its importation of stolen motorcycles has been sidetracked, even though it could be an even greater problem, albeit in quantity if not value. Owning a car may be high on the wish list of many of the continent’s 1.5 billion inhabitants but for reasons of access, fuel economy and maintenance, the motorcycle is what they really need to survive.
Cheaper machines produced in China and India have become increasingly available, overtaking the imports of more expensive Japanese motorcycles and making ownership attainable for many more households. Sadly however 70 per cent of the 1.4 billion population still cannot afford to purchase one. To date only 27 million are registered with the authorities, 80pc of which are taxis or delivery bikes.
This however leaves the door open for the importation of thousands of stolen machines, more affordable for the population perhaps but now desperately required for the far too many armed militia that rule the main towns and borders of mainly central Africa. Indeed motorcycles are now so deeply embedded in the lives and battle tactics of this region’s armed groups, such as the Islamic State, the Wagner Group as well as minor local militia, that some are considered to be of equal status to the rebels’ enduring favourite, the iconic 4×4 Toyota pickup truck.
The trafficking of stolen motorcycles in many of the continent’s 55 countries is in fact fuelling the plethora of conflicts that seem to occur weekly, with certain brands of motorcycle now linked to specific marauding armed groups who usurp the bad publicity for their own propaganda of fear. In 2021 for example in two villages in south west Niger more than 100 people were killed in an unprovoked attack by armed men in masks riding 100 motorcycles. These were described as small machines, all capable of traversing the desert plains and sand dunes which are common to the area.
In the Lake Chad Basin in Nigeria, an area of high plateaus and mountains, combatants from the two main rival Boko Haram factions both depend on motorcycles capable of climbing tracks and rough terrain for much of their sporadic raids, again usually in groups of 20 or more. Separatist fighters in western Cameroon also rely on particular motorcycles capable of traversing remote and mountainous terrain, but also rain forests and volcanic areas. Durability is more important than speed on these volatile roads and because the requirements for fuel efficiency are high in this remote area, this group’s demand is for rugged but small capacity machines.
More robust machines like the Boxer, Aloba, Sanili and Hajoue which can seat multiple people on the saddle and are fitted with stronger shock absorbers are a popular compromise for many of these armed groups and their tactics who operate in these regions.
A new report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime suggests these warring factions are actually now somewhat bizarrely forced into actually purchasing as many new machines as possible from agents that they can supply – money no object.
This is in addition to hundreds more imported second hand machines, provenance unknown, they have on order every month and further quantities of stolen machines which make up their mainstay of transport. All machines used in this arena are abused and volatile and have a life of just a few months use at best. This influx of all these motorcycles is reportedly equal to that of eastern Europe’s sponge-like demand for anything stolen on two wheels.
Traders in motorcycles suggest that whilst they may not have any choice other than to sell machines to these militia groups, they do place advance orders for as many models as possible, never negotiate the price required and always pay above market value and in cash. Observers across Africa are aware that huge stockpiles of motorcycles already exist and are frequently replenished. With the high and constant demand for machines, these caches seem inextricably linked to the two million new machines imported into any one of Africa’s 418 ports last year.
Stolen motorcycles have also been identified at these ports as coming from for example France and Italy which each posted a loss of around 30,000 machines last year. Also USA (54,000), Pakistan (32,000), Japan (13,000). Australia (9,000) and the UK (27,000) and certainly stolen motorcycles from many other countries who trade with Africa would have lost some two wheeled machines this way.
It’s interesting to note that of the few shipping containers that have arrived at one of Africa’s eastern coastal ports carrying motorcycles, one contained 23 stolen ‘Enduro’ machines and another was double packed with 41 125cc and 250cc bikes including a quantity of spare parts. Shipping containers carrying other motorcycles that have arrived particularly on Africa’s east coast via the free trade zones in Dubai have had their original port of exit erased. This is a decoy tactic used by the crime gangs to convince the authorities that the contents are not from a country known for exporting stolen machines. This is good news as anti-crime initiatives taken by the authorities in certain African countries and Interpol seem to have made it more difficult for the vehicle crime gangs to operate.
Other than South Africa, statistics on motorcycle theft range from wildly inaccurate to nonexistent. Indeed in Kampala in Uganda, Mombasa in Kenya, Khartoum in Sudan, Kinshasa in the DRC are just a few examples where unregistered, uninsured motorcycles of all types can be seen displaying registration plates from all over, including Japan, Saudi Arabia, USA, UK and Australia, that is if they have any identity displayed at all. If there is any focus on stolen vehicles from the local police then it is on the high value, more desirable cars and trucks.
There are thousands of unofficial, unpoliced rural border crossings in central region and one police officer in the village of Cinkassé in Togo, on the border of Burkina Faso, estimated that annually at least 3,000 motorcycles would be trafficked through his one crossing alone. His colleagues had seen tens of thousands of stolen machines trafficked into neighbouring Ghana, Benin and Nigeria each year.
To control motorcycle theft and the behaviour of the gangs, a few governments have tried to ban groups and individuals seen on large motorcycles particularly at night, on the presumption they are bandits, even extending this restriction to the sale and import on certain brands of machine. Most bans have not worked, however, as civilians and combatants have adapted by either driving smaller motorbikes not covered by the bans and because it was simply impossible for the military to respond to all motorbike use in places covered by curfews unless they had an eye in the sky surveillance available. Also any bans have been seen to boost the traffickers’ opportunities while forcing legitimate sellers out of business and limiting employment of workers in the motorbike sales and transport industry. Authorities fear these people could be taken over by terrorists because they know the roads, the villages and the ways to obtain motorcycles quickly.
The sheer demand for motorcycles has made them no doubt the most widely trafficked vehicle in Africa and this has made any genuine control over supplies of motorcycles, stolen or otherwise, by the authorities extremely difficult. The smuggling and trafficking of motorcycles is rife and dangerous and many are stolen and re-stolen on route to their destinations. In countries that have seaports like Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Benin prices are reasonable but rise considerably as they head inland to Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, some reaching the DCR and CAR at almost twice that at the port of entry.
Import agents in ports such as Cotonou, Lome and Lagos cannot rely on their machines ‘safe passage’ to a given destination despite paying several times on the journey and hiding them in large lorries containing old beds and inferior goods. Much of the load will involve the bribery of law enforcement officers and border guards. Often half a load of machines will be written off by agents as collateral loss and diverted to an armed militia group via experienced smugglers known as ‘Passeurs’.
Across south central Africa, whilst organised crime gangs continue to be involved in the trafficking of stolen motorcycles and because the authorities appear to be failing to control it, it’s the individual owners come victims of theft that reportedly are taking their own summary justice. In Uganda, the taxis and deliveries are carried out by Boda-Boda riders on motorcycles. Many of their bikes have been stolen at gun point and the riders murdered. Locals have no faith in their local police and if the offenders are caught, they too are murdered.
In Kenya, 1.2 million Boda-Boda riders service six million inhabitants. Many riders buy their machines on finance paying daily, weekly or monthly payments. Unscrupulous operators allow for no missing payments and use stolen machines that they steal back and sell in Tanzania leaving the hirer still left with the debt.
In Malawi a man was burned to death by locals for stealing a motorcycle whilst another caught by police was given 13 years imprisonment. In South Africa around 54,000 machines of all types are stolen annually, many by way of hijacking of which there were 22,742 last year.
Vehicle crime here has become a huge problem to the police who have to work with the knowledge that they are the second worst country, behind Columbia in South America, for vehicle crime. Problems with trafficking here appear to be around its borders with Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana which itself saw a 72 per cent increase in vehicle crime last year. Its sparse 2.3 million population have been seen to use adapted stolen motorcycles for generators, water pumps and to drill water holes.
In Africa, trying to control the import, theft and trafficking of motorcycles seems to be a conundrum in that whilst it is important to the stability of the continent it also attributes to its instability. Many civilians, deprived of reliable public transport and good quality roads, simply have to rely totally on the motorcycle for daily life to survive.
