Author(s)
François Grünewald & Laurent Saillard, Editions L'Harmattan, Paris
Pages
256
Stabilization in the Sahel
A Complex Challenge in a High-Risk Context
A region long associated with development cooperation, the Sahel began to experience instability in the early 1990s and, more dramatically, from 2011–12 onward. In this sparsely populated agro-pastoral region with erratic governance, radical Islam has managed to attract large numbers of people. Jihadist actors control entire areas and offer alternative forms of governance. French, European, American, and UN interventions were intended to contain the threat. This has not been the case. National and international efforts to stem this destabilization have yielded mixed results depending on the country. Following the wave of coups in 2022, despite Russian aid, the military juntas have been unable to reverse the decline. The countries of the Gulf of Guinea and Senegal are seeing the risk of the conflict spreading become a reality.
The goal was to draw lessons from the considerable financial, military, and human resources invested to stabilize the Sahel, which has become unpredictable. We traveled from Diffa to Dakar and from Nouakchott to Ouagadougou to interview farmers and government officials, researchers and diplomats in an attempt to understand.
