Although it is one of the smallest states on the African continent, Rwanda has adopted a proactive foreign policy. Kigali has deployed troops within the framework of multilateral peacekeeping missions to increase its prestige and influence. Since last year, changes have arisen: Rwanda has...

Security Issues

The Security Issues research axis of Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center explores the security stakes at play in the Sahel and in the Great Lakes regions. It notably examines the armed movements, the economies of illicit trades and the tensions surounding natural ressources.
Research Fellow, Director of Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center
...Associate Research Fellow, Sub-Saharan Africa Center
...Associate Research Fellow,Sub-Saharan Africa Center
...Ethiopia has been in a state of civil war since November 2020. The hostilities have already gone through several phases.
Poverty, a major consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to increase exponentially throughout the world, even though it was supposed to disappear in its most extreme form by 2030.
Since 2014, Russia has notably intensified its policies in Africa, joining the race for local markets and opportunities presented by the rapidly growing and transforming continent.
The vast gas discoveries in Mozambique, some 160 trillion cubic feet (4,530 billion cubic meters), will make this very poor country (6th lowest gross national income (GNI) per capita – the lowest in Africa) one of the world’s future major producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) within two...
While everyone is questioning the effectiveness of the anti-terrorist response in the Sahel, the first challenge is to ensure that the jihadist phenomenon in the Sahel is fully understood.
Nowadays, numerous actors are involved in military cooperation programs aiming to strengthen African armed forces and build special partnerships.
Often described as an “ungoverned area”, the Niger-Libya border is nevertheless at the centre of major economic, political and security challenges. Both the Libyan authorities and the Nigerien state are struggling to establish tight control over this particularly isolated area.
How do we get out of wars? One hundred years after 1918, Politique étrangère’s special report takes up this question from different perspectives in relation to the conflicts in which Western armies, willingly or otherwise, are embroiled.
For about 20 years, security sector reform (SSR) has emerged as an essential tool for crisis recovery and reconstructing weak and failed states at the heart of the security-development continuum. It is time to take stock of the lessons learnt about SSR and to offer an analysis of good...
Security issues : China’s presence in Africa Cycle : China’s policy towards Southern and Central Africa 3/3
As part of the Central and Southern Africa Observatory, a research partnership between Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center and the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS) of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, Ifri is hosting a series of three research webinars...
Ethiopia under pressure, the regional stability in question ? Videoconference
The African Studies Center of the French Institute of International Relations and the Institute for Strategic Research at the Military School are co-organizing a videoconference about the current political crisis in Ethiopia. The event will be held in English.
Europe Needs an Africa policy – Defining French and German Stances on Africa Webinar, Institut français Bonn, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Büro Bonn
Online Seminar - French-German Workshop for the Future
The Africa policies of France and Germany
As demonstrated by the current negotiations over the new European Africa strategy, 2020 is a milestone for the relationship between the two continents.
4x4 Directors Forum 2020 African-European Think Tank Dialogue
Deepening the Franco-Japanese Cooperation in Africa: the Economic and Security Dimensions
It is now clear that some African countries are on their way to achieve a dynamic economic growth that will uphold the overall development of the continent. At the same time, they are still struggling with the lack of economic and social infrastructure, governance issues and a complex and...
Southern Africa: the Uncertain Future of a "Pole of Stability"
In the framework of the Observatoire of Southern Africa and the African Great Lakes, Ifri co-organizes this conference on Southern Africa with the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy ...
The European bloc is involved in two training missions in Mali – the EUTM and the EUCAP – to coach soldiers and police.
President Déby was killed while visiting troops on the frontline, according to an army spokesman.
Days before French President Emmanuel Macron visited West and Central African leaders this week to talk security, Islamist fighters sent a defiant message -- a suicide attack on the headquarters of a five-nation force that is supposed to take the lead in fighting terrorism in the region.
...What is the role of international NGOs regarding the sanctions process?
Philippines' President wants to limit islamist groups' capacity after several attacks in the South of the country.
The report on the country's intelligence and security services follows last year's terrorist attacks. It says that each of of the terrorists was known to French authorities before the killings began.