More and more refugees arrive in Mauritania every day from Mali: last January at the beginning of the conflict in Northern Mali, there were 16,000; today there are more than 100,000. And the influx continues. Will their appeal be heard ?
How does al-Qaida see the tumult in the Arab world, the persistent conflict in other regions - and its own prospects? The movement commissions its longstanding management consultants to write a report, which is exclusively published on openDemocracy.
Many powerful states tend to view current global conflicts through the lens of Islamism, and to put military action at the heart of the response. But the deeper roots and character of these conflicts are to be found in poverty and marginalisation, not ideology.
The advance of a radical movement in northern Mali, and its destruction of cultural treasures in the ancient city of Timbuktu, are increasing calls for a foreign military response.
Mali serves as yet another reminder of both the power of strategic nonviolent action and the consequences of foreign powers seeking to impose military solutions on complex political problems.
A short-lived military coup in Mali highlights the complex crisis unfolding in the country's north, where armed groups and religious networks are active among a disaffected Tuareg population. Both immediate measures and an intelligent medium-term strategy are needed to preserve the nation's unity
In conversation with Jessica Horn, a leading Malian women’s rights activist identifies the roots of the crisis in Mali, and the opportunistic use of the crisis by Malian and international Islamic fundamentalists to gain a popular foothold in the north of the country
In the past decade two inventions have dramatically altered life throughout the vast and diverse continent of Africa. The first is the mobile phone and the second (more rarely considered) is the motorbike.
Some of West Africa's poorest countries observed from the vantage point of a Chinese import motorcycle: State competence cannot be built without the ability to tax; aid agencies' emphasis on bringing down tariff barriers and inward investment by tax-dodging multinationals predictably weakens state
What is the basis of the Tuareg-Gaddafi alliance that is playing itself out in the end-game in Libya? And to what extent is our understanding coloured by how we like to think of this tribe of the Sahara, or perhaps how they have been used in other peoples’ narratives – including our own?
Yvan Guichaoua, West Africa expert researching non-government armed groups, describes what kind of force Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is, what motivates its members and what are the conditions of its success. Smuggling, fast cars, and the economics of ransoms combine with ideology to create a t
