30 August, 2021 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
Unlike the Taliban, the Sahel’s extremist groups — notably Iyad ag Ghali’s Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the État islamique dans le Grand Sahara (EIGS) — are not a cohesive force. Nor are the Boko Haram groups in the Lake Chad basin region of Nigeria,...
26 July, 2021 | Menas Associates, Niger, Sahara, Sahel
The most immediate change we are seeing in the Sahel is a military and political shift in the centre of gravity from Mali to Niger with the latter’s new President, Mohamed Bazoum, beginning to emerge as the Sahel’s new strongman. With Chad’s Idriss Déby now dead, and...
29 December, 2020 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
On 2 January another two French soldiers were killed in Mali, after three were killed in late December at Hombori in the central Mopti Region when their vehicle detonated an improvised explosive device (IED). This latest loss of French military lives will intensify...
23 July, 2020 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
Following the regime’s lethal gun attack on the 11 July peaceful demonstration, the way in which Mali’s political crisis develops will have serious implications for the entire West African and Sahelian regions. If President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK) is forced to...
29 May, 2019 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
Jihadist groups are increasingly threatening the Gulf of Guinea (source: Bloomberg) Counter-terrorist operations continue to grip much of the Sahel, namely Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso. But jihadist groups are now beginning to move southwards and gain ground in...
15 May, 2019 | Menas Associates, Sahel
Jeremy Keenan, Menas’ Sahel expert, recently spoke at the ISOA-SCEG Stabilization and Security Conference on the political and security risks in the Sahel. From Mauritania to Sudan, Algeria to Burkina Faso, the vast Sahel covers an area that is almost as large...
