For the last few years, the Sahel Sahara region has been deeply weakened by violent and multidimensional conflicts. These conflicts affect people, economies, institutions as well as the relationships with the region external partners. Their extension, towards both the Gulfs of Benin and of Guinea will not take long and one has to be blind to ignore it.
Over the last few years a crisis has been brewing in the whole of the Sahel, not only in Mali. All the ingredients for an explosion where there: poorly or ungoverned vast territories, lack of effective governance, pervasive corruption, traffic and trafficking in drugs and cigarettes, irregular migrations and armed islamist radicals. At the epicentre of the Sahel crisis is Mali. Its neighbours are, however, not immune from the contagion.
Over the last few years a crisis has been brewing in the whole of the Sahel, not only in Mali. All the ingredients for an explosion where there: poorly or ungoverned vast territories, lack of effective governance, pervasive corruption, traffic and trafficking in drugs and cigarettes, irregular migrations and armed islamist radicals. At the epicentre of the Sahel crisis is Mali. Its neighbours are, however, not immune from the contagion.
The briefing took place in Nouakchott, while the chiefs of staff from Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger were meeting in the Mauritanian capital. At the same time, during a meeting in Algiers, the Foreign Ministers of the Maghreb adopted a common position regarding the strengthening of security measures in response to the crisis in Mali. In the field, the MNLA seems to have been taken out of the military scene, while ECOWAS has toughen its position towards the Junta in Bamako which does not yield anything, but tacks with the formation of a Special Force for the Protection of personalities.
The situation in the Sahel Sahara and especially in Mali is moving fast. As a consequence, an increasing number of countries, organizations and individuals are paying more and more attention to the Sahel Sahara. To contribute to the understanding of the Touareg question the Centre4s has prepared the following summary.
