Tag Archives: Sahel

US and allied counterterrorism strategy in the Sahel strikes out, and a thorough reassessment is in order.

Despite massive expenditure by the Nigerian government over the past decade, counter-terrorism operations by security forces have achieved limited success and the country is still ranked on the Global Terrorism Index as one of the states most affected by terrorism. Is the problem one of bad policy, strategy and tactics, or is corruption in the leadership ranks of the security …

Officially they are there to fight terror, but external interventions may be more about self-interest.

For the first time, a European country has used military force to carry out the premeditated killing of a specific individual outside the context of regular hostilities. Apart from the issue of whether targeted strikes are an effective or wise policy against terrorism, the UK’s latest move raises huge legal questions.

France may be shutting down its military operation in Mali, but that doesn’t mean French troops are going anywhere anytime soon. Instead, Operation Serval will be replaced by the bigger, brasher and bolder Operation Barkhan, France’s master plan to forever rid the Sahel of the scourge of Islamist extremism.

Poor roads and railways, high transaction costs, lack of sufficient market information, incoherent trade policies by governments and bureaucratic hurdles are among limitations to free trade in West Africa. Import and export procedures are more costly and more time consuming in West Africa than any region of the world, experts say.   For instance, according to a 2010 study by the UN …

As election season hits Africa’s four biggest economies, fears mount over further radicalization from the Horn of Africa to the Sahel, African governments stand up to the Chinese and Cape Town is World Design Capital 2014. The new year will also bring debates about the new global development agenda and how to attract more infrastructure investment for the continent. A …