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Sub-Saharan Africa

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Sub-Saharan Africa is not monolithic. While crises in the Sahel have attracted a great deal of attention, other regions also need to be monitored, and not just through the prism of security.

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Sub-Saharan Africa
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Date de publication
May 2025

The Contradictory Impacts of Western Sanctions on Economic Relations between Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa

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First Russia-Africa Summit, in Sochi, Russia, October 2019
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First Russia-Africa Summit, in Sochi, Russia, October 2019
Credits : GCIS/Flickr.com
Accroche

How does Russia maintain economic ties with Africa despite Western sanctions? An analysis of investments, trade, and the circumvention strategies deployed by Moscow.

The Central African Republic: Analysis of a Largely Unknown Crisis

Date de publication
01 September 2014
Accroche

Displaced peoples, insecurity over food and sanitation, economic devastation, worsening community tensions: the Central African Republic is going through what must be the worst crisis in its history.

Thibaud LESUEUR

International Relations: the Era of Anthropologists

Date de publication
01 September 2014
Accroche

Both perpetrators and forms of violence change. States are no longer the central referents of contemporary conflicts. We can no longer understand them as the outcome of a linear history starting from tribal societies and leading to Western political structures.

Gas in Mozambique: a High-risk Economic Revolution

Date de publication
02 June 2014
Accroche

Since oil was discovered in Uganda in 2006, East Africa has been an arena for a race in the exploration for hydro-carbons. Yet the oil reserves in Uganda, the more recent and modest ones in Kenya and the few pockets of gas in Ethiopia are on a completely different scale from the enormous gas resources discovered since 2010 in the off-shore waters of Mozambique and Tanzania.

The Mining Boom in the Sahel Region: Will the Development Last?

Date de publication
24 February 2014
Accroche

The Sahel, often discussed on account of its problems and crises – in particular recently, in view of the crisis in Mali – is in actual fact experiencing a new positive economic era, like the rest of the African continent. For the five countries of the Sahel region we shall be examining – Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – this favourable evolution, although it varies from country to country, is based on booming extractive industries.

France and the Fight against Terrorism in the Sahel: The History of a Difficult Leadership Role

Date de publication
28 June 2013
Accroche

Except for its extreme poverty and the disastrous effects of a series of droughts, the Sahel region has been largely out of the spotlight of international attention in the past. Yet the rise of terrorism and especially the creation of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2007 brought the region into the focus of world politics. Initially, AQIM"s activities in the Sahel mainly posed a threat to the stability of the Sahelian states themselves. In an effort to internationalize its agenda, however, AQIM also started targeting Western countries.

Tobias KOEPF

A Class Defined "by Consumption": The Grocery-Shopping Practices of the Lower-Middle Classes in Johannesburg, South Africa

Date de publication
25 April 2013
Accroche

The black middle class in Johannesburg is a much debated but ill-defined phenomenon, treated more often by economic players than by social scientists. Far from static and clear, the concept of the middle class is for us relevant insofar as it reveals crucial dynamics of the society. 

Elodie ESCUSA

The Sahel: A Crossroads between Criminality and Terrorism

Date de publication
04 November 2012
Accroche

Besides the ongoing political conundrum in Mali, it is the entire West African region, from Guinea Bissau to Mali, which is under threat of destabilization. Indeed, for many years now, terrorists and drugs traffickers have been synergizing their respective illegal activities, transforming the Sahel into a narcoterrorist zone. As a result, the Sahel has become a dangerous crossroads for drugs, crime, terrorism and insurgency.

Abdelkader ABDERRAHMANE

How to Create a Public Policy in a Failed State: The Challenge of Securing Land Rights in Eastern Congo

Date de publication
22 October 2012
Accroche

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 32 years of dictatorship and almost ten years of war have bled the country dry and left its administration incapable of providing the population with basic services and the government incapable of applying or even formulating public policy.

Thierry VIRCOULON Florence LIEGEOIS

Is Africa's Recent Economic Growth Sustainable?

Date de publication
11 October 2012
Accroche

Hardly a week goes by without an African investors’ conference or growth summit. 

Shantayana DEVARAJAN Wolfgang FENGLER

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Related centers and programs
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Macro view of a political map of Ethiopia
East and Central Africa Observatory
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The East and Central Africa Observatory is a 3-year research project (2023-2025) that Ifri is carrying out jointly with the French Institute of Research in Africa (IFRA) in Nairobi for the French Ministry of Defense, and more specifically its International Relations and Strategy Division (DGRIS). This observatory focuses on the main political, security and geopolitical developments taking place in the geographical areas covered by itself. This is achieved through the regular production of research notes, in English or French and the organization of an annual seminar around a key theme. For our research notes and conferences, we call on internationally acknowledged experts in the topics covered. This Observatory began in 2016, under the title of Observatory of Central and Southern Africa within Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa Center. 55 notes were drafted between 2016 and 2020.

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Subsaharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa Center
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Founded in 2007, Ifri's Sub-Saharan Africa center produces an in-depth analysis of the African continent and its security, geopolitical, political and socio-economic dynamics (in particular the phenomenon of urbanization). The Center aims to be both, through various publications and conferences, a space for disseminating analyzes intended for the media and the public but also a decision-making tool for political and economic actors with regard to the continent.

The center produces analyses for various organizations such as the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the French Development Agency (AFD) and even for various private supports. Its researchers are regularly interviewed by parliamentary committees.

The organization of events of various formats complements the production of analyzes by bringing the different spheres of the public space (academic, political, media, economic and civil society) to meet and exchange analytical tools and visions of the continent. The Sub-Saharan Africa Center regularly welcomes political leaders from different sub-Saharan African countries.

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Sub-Saharan Africa
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