Located at the borders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the Liptako-Gourma region is the new epicentre of the Sahara–Sahel crisis that broke out in 2012. As part of the research programme ‘Humanitarian Protection in the Liptako-Gourma region’, this is the second of two reports seeking to understand the impact of humanitarian protection programmes implemented in the Liptako-Gourma region and examines the links between local protection and humanitarian protection mechanisms as well as offering an overview on the threats, risks and vulnerabilities affecting the local populations.