Special envoys for the Sahel and their partners met on 17-18 October 2019 at the Casa África in Las Palmas, Spain. Traditionally an informal meeting bringing together representatives from various partner countries and regional/international organisations, the event opened up to researchers and Sahel experts. They shared their analysis and insights on three major topics: security and stability, economic development and women’s contributions to peace and stability. Read on

Alain Antil, a researcher from the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), provides an interesting analysis of the root causes of insecurity in Sahelian countries. While the areas affected by violence in the Sahel continue to expand, socio-economic and demographic trends further exacerbate existing fragilities, especially in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. “Far from being able to deliver basic services or even the most rudimentary infrastructure, the states no longer even fulfil their sovereign functions: security, justice... Other actors have taken over and exercise a sort of shared governance,” Antil explains. Read on

The most recent West African Paper, prepared by Daniel Eizenga, research fellow of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, offers a broad overview of the current security-development situation in the Sahel. It analyses three central themes - poverty, migration and conflict - adopting a historical perspective to examine long-term trends in the region. The paper includes an analysis of the costs of security-based solutions. The author recommends paying continued attention to the political and economic ramifications. Read on

In 2010, the trans-African master plan consisted of ten highways totalling a length of 57 300 km, from Cairo to Cape Town and from Dakar to Djibouti. The density of this ideal network, equivalent to 1.9 km of road per 1 000 km2 is four times lower than that of the current American interstate highway network. In West Africa, the envisaged highways would link Dakar to N’Djaména via the Sahelian belt, Dakar to Lagos via the Gulf of Guinea and Lagos to the Central African Republic via Yaoundé in Cameroon. Read on