Search on Ifri.org

Frequent searches

Suggestions

Sub-Saharan Africa

Description

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.

Related Subjects

Image Taxonomie
Sub-Saharan Africa
See all
Publications
Date de publication
September 2025

Ramses 2026. A New Chessboard

Image principale
Image
Ramses 2026 forthcoming
Nom
visuel_ramses_2026_a_paraitre_us.png
Accroche

A world chessboard chopped up by the vertigo of power...

Image principale

Emmanuel Macron's Trip to Central Africa: A Look Back on a Difficult Diplomatic Exercise

Date de publication
10 May 2023
Accroche

On February 27, 2023, Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech on French-African relations before traveling to Central Africa to meet with the leaders of four countries: Gabon, Angola, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This briefing looks back at the key moments of his latest presidential trip and analyzes the limits of this diplomatic exercise.

Lise LESIGNE Alain ANTIL
Image principale

Charles III's United Kingdom and Africa. A Temptation to Withdraw

Date de publication
05 May 2023
Accroche

On May 6, 2023, King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. This briefing assesses the UK-Africa relations against the backdrop of the new King's discourse on Global Britain.

United States: The Uncertain Empire

Date de publication
13 March 2023
Logo
international-business-times.jpg

France's Macron Set For Four-nation Tour Of Africa

01 March 2023
Accroche

President Emmanuel Macron kicks off a tour of Central Africa on Wednesday in a diplomatic drive to test out a new "responsible relationship" with the continent as anti-French sentiment runs high in some former colonies

Image principale

Nigeria’s 2023 Election: Democratic Development and Political Fragmentation

Date de publication
20 February 2023
Accroche

Nigerians will go to the polls on February 25 to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly. This marks the 7th in an unbroken sequence of presidential elections held since the country’s return to democracy in 1999. 

Sa'eed HUSAINI
Image principale

The Politics of New Cities: Diversification of Actors and Recentralization of State Power in the Case of Diamniadio

Date de publication
17 January 2023
Accroche

The construction of new cities on the African continent is in vogue. From multifunctional urban hubs to eco-districts, the images that accompany the announcement of these projects promote an African urban future based on modernity and technology.

Image principale

Self-defense Groups, the Pyromaniac Firefighters of Sahel

Date de publication
14 December 2022
Accroche

Since 2012, the proliferation of jihadist groups across the Sahel has monopolized the attention of the authorities.forced by the threats they represent and the weakening of their regal power, states are gradually withdrawing from their peripheral rural territories. As a result, populations have organized themselves to become local security providers.

Image principale

The Roots of a Quarter-Century of Violence Lie to the East of Congo (Kinshasa)

Date de publication
07 December 2022
Accroche

Almost thirty years after the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, the entire region remains unstable. After Paul Kagame came to power, 1.5 million Hutus fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For the Rwandan president, they represented an unacceptable threat. There then followed the First and Second Congo Wars, the consequences of which are still apparent. The recent attacks perpetrated by  the M23 rebels are a new episode in this tragic story.

Colette BRAECKMAN
Logo
foreign policy.jpg

How Rwanda Became Africa’s Policeman

21 November 2022
Accroche

From Benin to Mozambique, President Paul Kagame is flexing his small country’s military muscle—and transforming the continent’s security landscape.

Image principale

China in Madagascar: Between Quiet Politcal Oppurtunism and Intense Trafficking

Date de publication
04 November 2022
Accroche

In the context of growing regional rivalries between major powers in the Indian Ocean, the stakes of Sino-Malagasy relations are major. 

François GIOVALUCCHI Juvence RAMASY

Not Dazzling But Not Invisible : The Ugandan Middle Classes as "Somewhere in Between"

Date de publication
25 May 2016
Accroche

In January 2016, the Kenyan supermarket chain Uchumi has filed bankruptcy for its Ugandan subsidiaries, due to perpetual losses. And they are not alone: companies like Nestlé, Coca Cola or Barclays are slowly pulling out of Africa and recent reports – such as the Global Wealth Databook from Credit Suisse or from the Pew Research Center – suggest that the size of the African middle class may be much smaller than previously thought. So was the hype in recent years about “Africa rising” (Mahajan, 2009) and the African middle class just a bubble? In order to better comprehend the social and economic transformations taking place on the continent, it can prove helpful to look beyond the dazzling facade of economies such as Kenya or South Africa, and into those countries experiencing steady growth, but nevertheless far from including a well established middle class. Their middle classes are not shopping in big malls, driving cars and going on holidays. Rather, these groups are characterized by the improvement of their livelihoods compared to their parents’ generation, in terms of education, income and housing, but they still feel strongly vulnerable, and do not take their new benefits for granted. This has an important effect on their consumption patterns, and may not turn them into the promising new consumers, as they have sometimes been praised to be. 

Determinants of Japan’s ODA Allocation in Africa

Date de publication
30 March 2016
Accroche

The debate on emerging donors raises a question whether traditional donors really follow their own ODA (Official Development Assistance) policies or not. This paper addresses the question by investigating Japan’s adherence to its own ODA policies.

Fragility Factors and Reconciliation Needs in Forest Guinea

Date de publication
31 March 2015
Accroche

In December 2013 the first Ebola cases surfaced in Guéckedou district, near the Liberian and Sierra Leon borders in the Forest Region of Guinea. The outbreak quickly spread from Forest Guinea to the rest of the country and, through the borders, to neighbouring countries. It took three months to identify the Ebola virus as the causative agent of the burgeoning epidemic, longer for the Guinean government to understand the importance of treating the outbreak as a national emergency, and even more time for everyone involved to appreciate the great social toll of Ebola.

Béatrice BIANCHI

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

A Victorious Anti-insurrection Strategy? The Insurrections of 2010 in the Jonglei State of South Sudan

Date de publication
27 March 2012
Accroche

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.

Marc-André LAGRANGE

The Recent Blossoming in Relations between China and Madagascar

Date de publication
20 February 2012
Accroche

The question of the Chinese presence in Madagascar is very accurate. It is an opportunity for us to portray the sino-madagarscan relations.

Support independent French research

Ifri, a foundation recognized as being of public utility, relies largely on private donors – companies and individuals – to guarantee its sustainability and intellectual independence. Through their funding, donors help maintain the Institute's position among the world's leading think tanks. By benefiting from an internationally recognized network and expertise, donors refine their understanding of geopolitical risk and its consequences on global politics and the economy. In 2024, Ifri will support more than 70 French and foreign companies and organizations.

Ramses Conference, 2024
Related centers and programs
Image principale
Macro view of a political map of Ethiopia
East and Central Africa Observatory
Accroche centre

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.

Image principale
Subsaharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa Center
Accroche centre

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.

Page image credits
Sub-Saharan Africa
(c) Shutterstock