Security Issues

On May 16 2010, a few weeks after its first elections, the government of the semi-autonomous province of South Sudan (GoSS) had to confront two rebellions in the Jonglei Province. South Sudan may appear unified behind the banner of the SPLM/A, but in fact it is nothing of the kind.

Up to Europe’s threshold in the middle of Sahara and Sahel region, a growing insecurity led beyond mere reconsideration of field practice to a whole change of paradigm for multilateral and bilateral aid institutions.

Armed groups, many affiliated to the Niger Delta-wide political organisation MEND, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, proliferated throughout the oil producing states, particularly from early 2006 onwards. In January 2006, MEND declared war on the oil industry pending the...

This contribution consists in analyzing the unifying or opposing relations between the central State-power and the southern part of central-Saharan populations, mainly Arabs and Tuaregs, within the relational framework of colonial and Malian armed forces. The French Colonial State and the...

On November 5th 2009, a cocaine-loaded Boeing 727 aircraft arriving from Venezuela was discovered torched and emptied on a makeshift airstrip in the Malian desert (Gao region). The Sahel-Saharan area is clearly a contact zone between very distant worlds.

Our interest in this topic stems both from our annual visits to Mauritania which started fifteen years ago, and the tiny amount of research noticed on trafficking in this country.

Following the conflict in Ituri (1999-2003), the International Community deployed different peacebuilding programs in this north-eastern district of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Built around a concept of democratic transition at the national level, these programs have not always...

From Afghanistan to the Central African Republic, through Haiti and Guinea Bissau, 'failed' or fragile states have finally turned out to be much more resilient than planned to the Security Sector Reforms (SSR) and other imported reforms of governance. Their ability to let any reform coming...

Summary: Last year, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania finally got a legitimate government with Sidi Ould Chiekh Abdellahi's election as president. This first year in power has seen the new authorities taking over burning issues, while the economic crisis and acts of violence by...

The Western Sahara conflict is both one of the world's oldest and one of its most neglected. More than 30 years after the war began, the displacement of large numbers of people and a ceasefire in 1991 that froze military positions, its end remains remote. This is substantially due to the fact...