For our last Sahel Seminar of the semester, Baba Adou and Olivier Walther led a discussion on the current tensions around borders and sovereignty between Mali and Mauritania

Latest News Brief on the Sahel — Click on link to read and subscribe! mailchi.mp/060cd8c7af9a...

Why African Borderlands Keep Burning | African Arguments Africa’s margins have become its main theatre of violence. From the Great Lakes region to the Sahel, armed groups exploit borderlands as safe havens and logistics hubs.

Africa’s margins have become its main theatre of violence. Yet, borderlands are more than conflict spillover zones. They are strategic infrastructure, acting as connective tissue sustaining conflict systems that span countries and resist resolution for years africanarguments.org/2026/04/why-...

Conflict Has Memory: Why Local Wars Follow Distinct Trajectories Why Local Wars Follow Distinct Trajectories: A New Framework. Local violence is not just a sequence of incidents. Conflict has memory. Learn how analyzing distinct conflict trajectories can prevent strategic overreaction and improve irregular warfare planning.

In Irregular Warfare Initiative, Steven Radil and Olivier Walther argue that conflict has memory, i.e. that yesterday’s situation constrains today’s options, making short-term stabilization harder over time irregularwarfare.org/articles/con...

Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2000-2025 Is democracy surviving in Africa? Despite the continuance of multiparty elections, in the face of unmet expectations for greater freedom, social justice, and inclusive development, an increasing autho...

NEW - Leonardo A Villalón reflects on 30 years of democratic work in Niger in "Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2000-2025: A Political Historical Reassessment" edited by Corrado Tornimbeni and Timothy Scarnecchia boydellandbrewer.com/book/democra...

Street in Nouakchott, Mauritania

Latest News Brief on the Sahel — Click on link to read and subscribe! mailchi.mp/52a58713b7f5...

What does Epstein's network in Africa look like? SRG Alex Orenstein reveals the extent of the connections between the American financier and certain African leaders, aimed at financing major port infrastructure projects and securing access to natural resources, in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, and Gabon

Circuits and movement in religious transnationalism: a Tijani community between Mbour (Senegal), Fez (Morocco) and Mantes-la-Jolie (France) This paper examines the transnational circuits of travel and pilgrimage created by a Senegalese Sufi religious leader on a mission to preserve the orthodox Muslim and Sufi identity of his co-ethnic...

NEW - Circuits and movement in religious transnationalism: a Tijani community between Mbour, Fez and Mantes-la-Jolie, by SRG Abdoulaye Kane www.tandfonline.com/eprint/4FVDP...

NEW DIIS Working Paper - Wars over checkpoints. Nine theses on the politics of roadblocks in conflict-affected borderlands, by Peer Schouten, SRG Olivier Walther and XCEPT team www.diis.dk/en/research/...

NEW -Embodied Religiosity. Religious Practices among the Baye Fall, by Macodou Fall brill.com/view/journal...

Sahel Research Group Weekly Newsletter 500 Political rally, St. Louis, Senegal (2014)

Latest News Brief on the Sahel — Click on link to read and subscribe!
mailchi.mp/83d49b74e8ef...

Today, several members of the Sahel Research Group attended the workshop "Political Movements in North Africa and the Sahel" organized by the University of Florida Center for Global Islamic Studies and The Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)

Our colleagues from the SRG project on the impact of climate change in the Sahel are meeting in Dakar this week with their collaborators in the region from Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad.

Peuhl women’s lives under JNIM in the Central Sahel Although the crises affecting the Sahel have been widely analysed through the lenses of armed groups, state fragility and geopolitics, much less is known about how women experience insurgent governanc...

Yes, here is the report www.policycenter.ma/publications...

The expansion of JNIM has brought about major changes in the lives of Fulani women in the Sahel. Today, we have the opportunity to discuss this fascinating topic with Corinne Dufka

For the first Sahel seminar of 2026, Baba Adou and Mohammed Sanda led a discussion on Imam Dicko and the challenges in finding a religious comprise in Mali

Force unifiée de l’AES : une armée commune, un pari commun Sous le ciel clair, la solennité de l’instant contraste avec la dureté persistante du contexte sécuritaire sahélien. Sur le tarmac,

Happy to see our colleagues Farès Davion interviewed in this blog discussing the future of the AES military force horontv.net/force-unifie...

Should the Sahel Research Group stay on Bluesky? Yes? No? Whatever? Is there still anybody interested in the West African Sahel out there?

Fishing pirogues, Guet Ndar, St. Louis du Senegal

Latest News Brief on the Sahel — Click on link to read and subscribe! mailchi.mp/862aab424d1d...

NEW - Towards praetorian-led electoral authoritarianism? Examining the post-coup transitions in francophone Africa, by Dr. Sebastian Elischer www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

What would we be without our amazing doctoral students and recently minted PhDs?

We are delighted to announce that Corinne Dufka, lead author of the XCEPT report "Peuhl women’s lives under JNIM in the Central Sahel", will discuss her work with us at the Sahel Seminar on 30 January in Gainesville.

Kidnapping for ransom fuels the expansion of jihadist groups in the Sahel, argue our colleagues Alexander Laskaris and Olivier Walther in @africa.theconversation.com theconversation.com/kidnapping-f...

"West Africa’s transport infrastructure has become a target and a weapon", write Steve Radil, Olivier Walther and Alex Thurston in Africa Defense Forum this week adf-magazine.com/2025/12/west...

The emphasis placed on external actors in the Malian crisis has contributed to underestimating the role played by successive Malian governments in the deterioration of the security situation, argue Alexander Laskaris and Olivier Walther in @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/03/m...

More efforts should be dedicated to tracking intra-regional trade in agricultural products and livestock in West Africa, explain Lacey Harris-Coble and Olivier Walther during today’s Sahel Seminar theconversation.com/west-africas...

This Friday at 3:30pm, Visiting Scholar Alex Laskaris will speak on the success of autocracy in Africa, reflecting both on his tenure as the US Ambassador to Chad and the work he has been doing at the University of Florida internationalcenter.ufl.edu/baraza-chad-...

From High and Dry to Low and Wet: The Political Ecology of Urban Flooding in Nouakchott, by @corysatter.bsky.social satter.substack.com/p/from-high-...

Latest News Brief on the Sahel — Click on link to read and subscribe! mailchi.mp/90988f84fcb7...

Our own @babaadou.bsky.social discusses the recent blockade of Bamako with TV5 Monde information.tv5monde.com/afrique/asph...