May 9, 2018 | Menas Associates, Sahara
General Francois Lecointre, Chief of Staff of the French armed forces, recently told the Defence Committee of France’s National Assembly that it would take 10-15 years for France to resolve Mali’s security problems, with the caveat of: ‘if we can’. While this is a...
Apr 29, 2018 | Menas Associates, Sahara
President Idriss Déby is determined to turn Chad into his own personal fiefdom. He held a forum for institutional reform in N’Djamena between 19-27 March, at which he announced the launch of a new fourth republic. Unsurprisingly, the Forum was boycotted by the entire...
Mar 20, 2018 | Menas Associates, Sahara
The attacks on the French Embassy and local army headquarters in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, earlier this month have been linked to extremist violence. Iyad ag Ghali’s Groupe pour le soutien de l’islam et des musulmans (GSIM) — which claimed...
Feb 22, 2018 | Menas Associates, Sahara
The United Nations’ Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was created in April 2013 — three months after France’s military intervention in Mali (Operation Serval) — and now comprises 13,000 soldiers. The mission’s head, Mahamat Saleh...
Jan 24, 2018 | Menas Associates, Sahara
The Sahel has entered 2018 with a shifted geopolitical focus. But interests of countries, like China, that have increased links to the Sahel over the December 2017 – January 2018 period are more inspired by political opportunism, than altruistic factors, or an...
