Some 4.5 million people in the Sahel and West Africa were in need of assistance during the period from October to December 2018. About 182 000 people required emergency assistance in Nigeria, Mali, The Gambia, Mauritania, Niger and Chad. In northeastern Nigeria, the area around Lake Chad and the Liptako‑Gourma region, this situation is due to the deterioration of their livelihoods because of persistent civil insecurity. If appropriate measures are not taken, nearly 8.9 million people, including 4.5 million in Nigeria, could be affected by June-August 2019. Read on

The G5 Sahel Security College was inaugurated on 16 September in Bamako during a meeting chaired by Salif Traoré, the Malian minister in charge of internal security and civic protection. The college aims to train security forces and build a network of people involved in security activities, inclduing police agents, judges, religious authorities and civil society leader. Four dedicated training centres focus on military intelligence (Chad), border security (Niger), criminal police (Burkina Faso) and training services (Mauritania). Read on

CILSS and the G5 Sahel held a dialogue workshop at the Agrhrymet Regional Centre in Niamey on 12-14 August. As a follow-up to the co-operation framework signed in February 2018, experts from both organisations gathered to explore opportunities to build synergy between key parts of the G5 Sahel Strategy for Security and Development and the 2020 CILSS Strategic Plan. Read on

In his most recent article published on the Ideas4Development blog, Laurent Bossard, director of the Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat, takes a look at the paradox of Sahelian women. Despite the key socio-economic role they play in Sahelian communities, they remain marginalised and are sometimes deprived of their fundamental rights. Read on