The Complexities of Mediating African Conflicts: Insights from Paul-Simon Handy

L'invasion, par la Russie, de l'Ukraine, grenier à blé de la mer Noire, impacte lourdement le marché mondial de cette denrée, en premier lieu les principaux pays/clients importateurs des deux belligérants. L'objet de cette étude est d'analyser les conséquences de cette guerre pour l’Afrique, continent où le pain est un aliment de base. Ce qui nous conduit, tout d'abord, à rappeler les données générales de ce marché, avec une Russie et une Ukraine respectivement au premier et cinquiè ...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Black Sea granary, severely impacts global wheat markets, and especially hits the two warring parties' primary importing countries/clients. This study examines impacts of this war on Africa, where bread is a basic staple. This brings us to start with a review of broad market data, with Russia and Ukraine respectively ranking first and fifth among global wheat exporters, and the European Union (EU) gaining an edge as an alternative to the U.S./Canada ...

African states are in a vulnerable position. The invasion of Ukraine could affect food security and trigger a spike in oil prices, inflicting economic duress on African households. The Black Sea region is home to vast fertile farmlands, and war in the “breadbasket of the world” could threaten wheat and fertilizer supplies. Increased economic hardship and social discontent do not bode well for democratic governance in Africa, especially in light of the recent spate of military coups. ...

Of all the regions included in this report series, Tillabéri is the region that scores best when it comes to both general community resilience, as well as traditional and religious authorities’ functioning. The region is not as exposed to shocks as Est (Burkina Faso) and Ménaka (Mali), and its ability to recover from shocks is high compared to the other regions. Trust in traditional and religious authorities is comparatively high as is their equal treatment of different subgroups in ...

La situation sécuritaire dans le Sahel central est à ce point dégradée que la menace djihadiste déborde désormais sur la partie nord des pays côtiers d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Les régions de l’Est et des Cascades au Burkina Faso ou celles de Sikasso et de Kayes au Mali constituent des bases arrière permettant aux groupes djihadistes – et principalement à la Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) pour l’instant – de s’étendre au Bénin, en Côte d’Ivoire, et dans une moindre mesure au T ...

Dans un contexte de gouvernance complexe, où autorités traditionnelles et modernes se côtoient même si leur pouvoir décroît, le Mali connait depuis de nombreuses années une situation sécuritaire alarmante, notamment dans le centre du pays. La montée des tensions entre communautés agricoles et pastorales est aggravée par la présence de groupes extrémistes. La population du Cercle de Niono, dans la région de Ségou, a été victime de violences inouïes pendant plusieurs mois avant que de ...

This article was initially published on usip.org   The presence of CBAGs raises issues that force a rethink of local implementation of peacebuilding processes. The RESOLVE Network’s multiyear research on Community-Based Armed Groups (CBAGs) has established critical findings for the international community on how to engage, manage and transform violent actors in conflict-affected states. While mitigation efforts tend to target anti-state extremist org ...

“Hiring outsiders to fight your battles is as old as war itself”. Peter W. Singer (2011) Mercenaries, private contractors, soldiers of fortune, dogs of war, guns for hire, war lords ... These are some of the names given to individuals working for private companies that provide military and security services. The debate around the use of these companies is deeply polarized, with some authors portraying such military contractors as ‘messiahs’, praising their efficiency in modern conf ...

Almost ten years after the beginning of the security crisis in the Sahel, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger face a graver predicament than ever before. In the throes of multiple insurgencies, they and their foreign patrons, including France, have shown the limits of military containment. While these three countries are the victims of terrorist aggression, their crises also have deep domestic roots, including long-standing patterns of state abuses of their populations, even in the more d ...