Illicit Resource Extraction African Union Natural Resources, Nigeria West Africa is rich in national resources, and yet illicit resource extraction remains a particularly worrisome category of IFFs. These assets are indigenous to the region; while they play a pivotal role in the formal economy, they can readily be diverted into the illicit economy at various points of the supply chain (source, transit, sale and export), thereby generating IFFs. Rather than driving development, the story of the region’s natural resource exploitation is one of oil and minerals driving institutional corrosion, instability, violence and conflict. Addis Ababa African Union 2018 2018 Text 9p. iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/case_study_-_illicit_resource_extraction-english.pdf