Since early 2024, the Mauritanian government has intensified its enforcement operations against undocumented sub-Saharan migrants in Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, and other urban centers. This campaign, which includes increased checkpoints and arrests, is a direct...
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Geopolitics: Religion, Oil, and Minerals are Now Washington’s Africa Strategy
Under Donald Trump, US Africa policy is zeroing in on oil and mineral wealth while using evangelical networks as a back channel into Central Africa — offering political cover to leaders and countering Chinese and Russian influence where Catholic voices are more...
Protests Erupt as Water Shortage Grips Mauritania
Opposition lawmakers in Mauritania staged a sit-in at the Ministry of Water to protest a two-week-long water shortage in the capital. The demonstration, which included a demand for the immediate resignation of the Water Minister, comes amid growing public frustration...
Ivory Coast Edges Toward Political Flashpoint Ahead of 2025 Election
Rising tensions, legacy rivalries, and fears of renewed violence loom over a fragile democracy. With just months to go before Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election, the political atmosphere is growing tense—perhaps dangerously so. Both the ruling party and the...
Niger Deepens Strategic Ties with Russia After Break from France
Civil nuclear cooperation and uranium development signal a shift in Niamey's global posture In a development that further signals Niger’s departure from its traditional Western orbit, Niamey hosted a high-level Russian delegation on July 28, 2025, led by Russian...
Jihadist Expansion Threatens Coastal West Africa
The Sahel is confronting an intensifying insurgency that continues to evolve in scale and complexity. Armed groups such as the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) are adapting and adjusting their...

The EU’s Silent Partner: Mauritania’s Migration Deal Under Scrutiny
Mauritania is getting €210 million in EU funding to act as a migration gatekeeper to fortress Europe. The northwest...
Brief: Fifteen Migrants Found Dead in a Boat off the Coast of Nouadhibou, Mauritania
Fifteen undocumented migrants, including one Mauritanian, have died off the coast of Nouadhibou, according to a Sahara...

The US Africa Policy: Don’t Expect Anything New
Africa has been a low priority for virtually all US administrations, be they republicans or democrats. It is true that...
Sahel: Growing concern over crackdown on media in the Sahel
Thirty media outlets and press freedom groups on Wednesday called for Mali and Burkina Faso's ruling juntas to...
Morocco ups campaign to capture more migrants crossing seas
Morocco's navy has intercepted 552 migrants attempting to reach Europe over 10 days in both the Atlantic Ocean and...
Several killed in conflict between herders and farmers in south of Chad
Clashes between herders and farmers in southern Chad have left at least 22 people dead, authorities said Wednesday...
Niger secures release of kidnapped French journalist Olivier Dubois and American aid worker Jeffery Woodke
By Camille Laffont: A French journalist and a US aid worker who had been kidnapped by jihadists in the Sahel have been...
Sahel’s children are facing extreme dangers, desperately need humanitarian help
By Robin Millard: Ten million children in west Africa's central Sahel region are now in "extreme jeopardy" and...
Mali junta cracks down on social media influencers, arrests Rokia Doumbia
A prominent social media influencer in Mali was detained Wednesday after lambasting the ruling military junta as a...
Sahel: Chad’s human rights commission puts death toll in last year’s protests to 128
A total of 128 people died in the violent repression of opposition protests in Chad last year, the country's human...
Sahel: The sad plight of children in the Sahel’s conflict zones
By Amaury Hauchard: After fleeing the jihadists who threatened their remote village, Aichata Hassan had no idea that...
Burkina Faso: Makeshift gold mine caves in near Hounde, killing several miners
Ten people were killed when a makeshift gold mine collapsed in western Burkina Faso, a miners' association said on...
Sahel: Three children die in school fire in Niger’s Zinder region
Three children died and 11 were injured, two of them seriously, when a school made of straw and wood caught fire in...
Sahel: Niger holds activist in air strike case
The head of a leading campaign group in Niger has been detained in a case involving an army air strike on suspected...
Health: World Health Organization concerned about unprecedented number “intersecting health emergencies,” appeals for money
The World Health Organization on Monday appealed for $2.54 billion for its work in 2023 to help millions of people...
Sahel: Soldiers rescue women and babies abducted by suspected jihadists in N. Burkina Faso
By Armel Baily: Soldiers rescued a group of 62 women and four babies abducted by suspected jihadists last week in...
Sahel: The dreadful Koro Toro prison and the brutality of the Chadian regime
By Ali Abba Kaya with Laura Diab and Thomas Gropallo in Libreville: Dehydrated and whipped by scorching winds as their...
Sahel: Jihadist violence intensifies in Burkina Faso
Attacks in Burkina Faso have increased since October and now especially target civilians, according to junta leader...
Sahel: Jihadists in Burkina Faso also abduct children and babies
Investigators now believe that last week's raid by suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso led to the abduction of around...
Sahel: Jihadists abduct dozens of women in north Burkina Faso
By Hugues Richard Sama: Suspected jihadists have abducted roughly 50 women in insurgency-wracked northern Burkina...
Mali: Tear gas fired as influential Malian imam returns
Followers of an influential Malian imam on Sunday called for the country's ruling junta to explain the use of tear gas...
Migration: Tragedy at sea with dead-by-drowning of 13 Moroccan migrants in failed sea crossing
The bodies of 13 Moroccans have been recovered after their boat sank off the country's southern coast while attempting...
Sahel: Three dead in Niger military helicopter crash
Three people died on Monday when a Nigerien military helicopter crashed on return from a routine training flight, the...
Sahel: Court in Chad jails hundreds for alleged involvement in riots
By Ali Abba Kaya A Chadian court has handed jail terms of between two and three years to 262 people who were arrested...
Mali: Joliba TV resumes broadcasting after two month suspension by junta
Mali's communications authority said Thursday it had lifted the suspension of one of the Sahel country's main news...
Sahel: Lawyers in Chad to boycott trials of hundreds of anti-government protesters
Lawyers in Chad have vowed to stop work during a mass trial, due to start Tuesday, of more than 400 people detained...
Sahel: Six arrested and massive protest in Mali over video deemed anti-Islamic
Thousands of demonstrators thronged Mali's capital Bamako on Friday to protest the publication of a video on social...
Environment: Sahel region crippled by torrential rains and deadly floods
Flooding caused by torrential rain in Niger has left 195 people dead and affected more than 322,000, an official toll...
Sahel: 50 civilians killed in anti-junta protests in Chad
Djimet Wiche: Tensions eased in Chad on Friday following a day of unprecedented violence at protests that left around...
Sahel: Record death toll from floods in Niger
Flooding caused by heavy rains in the West African state of Niger has claimed nearly 200 lives and affected more than...
Sahel: Russian plane to be delivered to Mali crashes near Gao, pilot killed
A Russian pilot died Tuesday when a plane that Russia had recently delivered to Mali's armed forces crashed near the...
Sahel: Herder-farmer violence claims dozen lives in Chad’s central region
Eleven people were killed in fighting between herders and farmers in central Chad on Friday, a local governor told AFP...
Environment: Severe floods wreck havoc on West African agriculture
By Aminu Abubakar Nigeria rice farmer Adamu Garba squelched barefoot through his paddy fields, surveying damage from...
The Sahel is in permanent state of climate shock, the world’s most vulnerable to extreme droughts, floods and heatwaves
The World Bank on Monday urged five West African countries to diversify their economies to adapt to climate change,...
Sahel: More than 150 dead in Niger rainy season floods
Severe floods in Niger after months of heavy downpours have killed 159 people, authorities said Monday, marking one of...
Sahel: 50 migrants rescued in Niger desert
A total of 50 West African migrants, including women and children, were rescued in the desert in northern Niger near...
Sahel: Chad regime cancels summons of opposition chief Succes Masra to calm political tensions
Chad's military junta said Sunday it was suspending a summons for the country's main opposition leader. Succes Masra,...
Sahel: Intense violence in Mali sends thousands fleeing
Tens of thousands of people, many of them children, have fled to a town in northeastern Mali after fighting erupted in...
Sahel: Mali bans hookah smoking
"Shisha-abana," exclaims Bilal, a grocer in Mali's capital Bamako, in the national language Bambara: "Shisha is...
Sahel: Country of Chad suffering from devastating floods
Torrential rains have caused 340,000 people to lose property or flee their homes in Chad in almost two months since...
Burkina Faso: Ethnic Fulanis fear violence will escalate against them
By Armel Baily Jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso have inflamed accusations against the Fulani community, sparking...
Sahel/Chad: Communal violence claims nine lives in Eastern Logone
Nine people have been killed in clashes in southern Chad between herder and farmer communities, the local governor...
Sahel: Heavy rains destroy farmland, kill dozens of people in Chad
Torrential rains have caused the death of 22 people in Chad since June, with more than 110,000 affected, a UN report...