« sahel » “Constructive Chaos” Extends Into the Sahel Abdelkader Abderrahmane · November 2017 In January 2013, France launched Operation Serval, which was to stop terrorist groups. Five years later, nothing has been solved and chaos is spreading in the region, a chaos that only security and arms companies benefit from. On October 21, a meeting was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in (…) Climate Change Devastates the Sahel Rémi Carayol · September 2020 The Sahel is a region made increasingly arid by the encroaching desert and yet it must deal periodically with devastating floods. A double bind with many causes. A man wading across an expanse of water carrying a mattress on his head. A woman piling onto a makeshift rowboat the pots and pans (…) Who are These “Jihadists” Who Are Defeating the French Army in the Sahel? Rémi Carayol · September 2019 The French army is bogged down in the Sahel. Despite its occasional victory communiqués, the fighting has spread to more countries in the region. These failures originate in Paris’s inability to understand what is at stake politically, or the motivations of the hundreds of young men who are (…) Books French Soldiers in the Sahel: A Barely Repressed Colonial Unconscious Rémi Carayol · October 2020 They’ve “done their time” in Africa. Or better still they’ve made war in Africa. In the Sahelo-Saharan strip, known in French army jargon as the “BSS”. A war they describe in their own words, the language of soldiers brought up on the “exploits” of colonial conquest and indoctrinated in war (…) How Africa Has Become the Epicentre of Jihadist Activity Wassim Nasr · April 2023 Though territorialy defeated in Iraq and Syria, since 2014 the Islamic State Organisation have given themselves the means to set up shop in Africa. By no means a secondary battlefield, the continent is today the epicentre of jihadist activities, the populations of the Sahel offering them an (…) Civil Society Gears up to Tackle the Climate Crisis CCFD-Terre Solidaire · November 2016 From November 7th to 18th, Morocco will host the COP22 in Marrakesh. This is an opportunity to focus our gaze on the Maghreb, and beyond, on the Sahel and the Middle East, to shine a light on civil society fighting for climate justice in the region. The gap between the hopes raised by the Arab (…) In Libya, Marshal Haftar Is Suffering Setbacks, France Too Patrick Haimzadeh · June 2020 The tide is turning in favour of the coalition in power in Tripoli. Its troops have won back control of several cities from the forces of Field Marshal Haftar, albeit with Turkish support but also with that of a population apparently hostile to the idea of a military dictatorship. The numerous (…) How Israel Is Developing Scorpion, At the Heart of France’s Future System of Defence Jean Stern · March 2021 In utter secrecy, French and Israeli military personnel and engineers are cooperating in view of the wars of the future, associating digital command, drones and robots, even though the two countries are competitors on the arms market, especially in Africa. While France is the world’s (…) Fight One-way Thinking, Support Orient XXI · November 2020 In December 2010 the people of Tunisia swarmed into the streets, triggering what came to be called the “Arab Spring”. In just a few months, Egyptian, Libyan and Yemeni autocrats were swept aside, those of Syria and Morocco seriously threatened. Ten years later, Winter has again descended on the (…) Interview Africa. The Living Memory of the Usman Dan Fodio’s Caliphate Pierre Prier, Vincent Hiribarren · January 2020 In the 19th century, Africa’s largest State was a jihadi empire which lasted one hundred years. The Sokoto Caliphate and the name of its founder, the Fulani warlord and religious reformer Usman Dan Fodio, are still remembered in West Africa. Historian Vincent Hiribarren, lecturer at King’s (…) Editorial War on Terrorism, the History of an Illusion Alain Gresh · September 2021 “Enduring freedom!” This was the slogan, as pompous as it was pathetic, which President George W. Bush used to launch his"war on terrorism” in October 2001. As he had just explained to the US Congress: They hate what they see right here in this chamber—a democratically elected government. (…) Moroccan Counterterrorism Policy and Its Blind Spots Alexandra Fokina · May 2019 Although Morocco currently appears to pursue one of the most effective counterterrorism policies in the Arab world due to its extensive international cooperation and, as its authorities claim, passive counter-extremism policies, the whole spectrum of social and regional factors have the (…) Maghreb-Ukraine (1). Algeria and Morocco Refuse to Choose Akram Belkaid · May 2022 Faced with the war in Ukraine, the Maghreb countries have no intention of siding with one or the other of the warring parties. This choice of neutrality can be explained by many geopolitical factors but also by Russia’s military clout and increasing economic influence in the region. In this (…) From Climate Change to War Warda Mohamed · November 2016 The work of researchers has established that climate change and the monopolisation of resources are factors in the development of armed conflict and terrorist groups. These relatively little-explored connections are relevant in many areas of the world, including Syria, Iraq, Burma and numerous (…) Editorial Afghanistan, One Defeat Breeds Another Alain Gresh · August 2021 August 15, 2021 Kabul has fallen, and it took the Taliban only a few weeks to sweep away the Afghan army, which had been financed and trained by the United States for twenty years. As a reminder, the communist regime had survived the withdrawal of the Red Army for three years. But the Afghan (…) In Sudan, General Hemetti Leads the Fray Gérard Prunier · February 2020 The man who organised the harsh crackdown in Khartoum last June, and who is now the No. 2 in the ruling junta, Gen. Mohamed Dagalo, known as ‟Hemetti”, began his bloodstained career in Darfur. Brutal and cunning, in reality it is he who wields the real power, in advance of a supposed democratic (…) Gulf Countries and Turkey Pitch Against Each Other... in Africa Gérard Prunier · November 2018 One of the unknown victims of rivalries between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey (not to mention Iran) is the African continent where these countries compete with each other for dollars. On 24 October 2018, when “Davos in the Desert” had been seriously compromised by (…) Algeria Is Losing Ground in Africa Lakhdar Benchiba · March 2017 On January 30, 2017, a majority of African countries voted to allow Morocco back into the African Union despite Algerian (and South African) opposition over the question of Western Sahara. The diplomatic ties which Algeria owed to the prestige of its war of independence are gradually distending (…) Tunisia. False Coup, Real Political Crisis Thierry Brésillon · July 2018 The dismissal on June 6 of Lofti Brahem, the Minister of Home Affairs, gave rise to the rumor of a coup in the offing. It was a symptom of a growing restiveness in Tunisia while the sensitive issues are piling up and the institutions have trouble asserting their authority. The world of (…) France: Police Violence as Part of Colonial History Mathieu Rigouste · June 2022 In France, at a time when there is increasing public controversy over the role of the police, there is also a tendency to forget the colonial origins of state brutality. And the influence of the transmission of a certain “know-how” acquired during Algeria’s war of independence still perceptible (…)