People protesting the US military presence in Niamey, Niger on 13 April 2024.
Balima Boureima/Anadolu via Getty Images
As the US winds down its military operations in Niger, it is clear that its presence did not lead to eradication of terrorism in the country.
Niger’s coup leaders waving at a crowd of supporters in Niamey on August 6, 2023.
Balima Boureima/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A combination of Nigerian and Nigerien factors dim prospects of Ecowas military intervention in Niger.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, new ECOWAS chairman.
Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images
The new ECOWAS chairman must focus on strengthening democracy and security in west Africa.
Malians demonstrate against the presence of foreign troops.
Annie Risemberg/AFP via Getty Images
The transitional government is determined to change its partners to fight insecurity in Mali – but results will be hard to come by.
Aftermath of an attack by suspected members of the Islamic State West Africa Province in Auno, Borno State, northeast Nigeria.
Audu Marte/AFP via Getty Images
Political extremism has a checklist. The more boxes are checked, the closer political extremism gets.
Chadian soldiers benefited from foreign aids and training.
International support for Déby and the dependence on Chad’s peacekeeping troops had a downside: it came at the expense of democracy and respect for human rights.
French Marine Special Operation Forces trained Mali’s soldiers under the Task Force Takuba mission.
Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images
Though its full impact is unpredictable, the withdrawal of France from Mali will have some likely effects.
Soldiers from the French Army in Mali. The withdrawal of troops has begun.
Photo by Michele Cattani/AFP via Getty Images
There are few visible results on the ground after eight years of war in Mali.
General Mahamat Idriss Déby at the funeral of his father Chadian president Idriss Deby.
Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Chad’s political institutions are corroded by corrupt politics to a degree that make true political reforms highly unlikely.
Mauritanian soldiers stand guard at a G5 Sahel task force command post, in November 2018 in the southeast of Mauritania near the border with Mali.
Photo by Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images
The political will displayed by the Sahel member countries of the G5 Task Force appears to be out of step with the actual capabilities of their armies.
A less militarised approach could lead to greater security in the region.
Daphne Benoit/AFP via Getty Images
The over-militarisation of the crisis across the Sahel region has done little to foster stability.
General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, who heads Chad’s transitional military council.
Chadian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The struggle among elites has not resulted in efforts to improve the material lives of ordinary people unconnected to the political elite.
French soldiers patrol in armoured personnel carriers during the Barkhane operation in northern Burkina Faso in 2019.
Michele Cattani/AFP via Getty Images
More than 20 years after the shift from unilateralism to multilateralism, it is reasonable to wonder how multilateral France’s ‘new interventionism’ really is.
Kenyan soldiers at a prayer service in 2016 to honour compatriots killed in an attack on their Somali base by Al-Shabaab militants.
EPA/Daniel Irungu
New evidence has made possible a more accurate estimate of how many African personnel have died since the Somalia mission deployed in March 2007.