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This article focuses on the comparative history of Saharan law enforcement units in two former French colonies, during the period when national institutions were being established. By examining the daily life of these units, as well as the debates that their organisation prompted, we can highlight the contrasting effects of late colonial policing in two different post-colonial situations. After the colonial authorities failed to standardise a confusing and highly unusual situation, the first Nigerian and Mauritanian governments inherited the sensitive question of how to redistribute the colonial income of the arms service.