Dear friends of the Sahel, we are closing this account and invite you to follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook

This new working paper suggests that the structural position occupied by checkpoints in transport networks shapes spatial variations of violence in West Africa www.diis.dk/en/research/...

Latest News Brief on the Sahel — Click here to read and subscribe! mailchi.mp/e18cd341be0b...

We wish everyone a happy Tabaski. Eid Mubarak!

Why Niger Can Seize Uranium but Cannot Sell It www.fpri.org/article/2026...

Recently published - A pathway to food and nutritional security in the Sahel in the context of climate change: A One Health framework www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

Latest News Brief on the Sahel — Please note that will we be publishing on a biweekly schedule for the summer. Look out for the next news brief on 29 May. mailchi.mp/c51052d2546b...

West African states respond to insurgencies by building city walls and fortifying borders. While they provide short-term protection, these initiatives can also deepen rural insecurity and civilian vulnerability anl.geog.ufl.edu/fortified-la...

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

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-...

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...

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...

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

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...

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.

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

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?

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...

TODAY at 11:45am - Andrew Lebovich will give a talk entitled "Things fall apart: exchanges, observations and perspectives on revolution between Algerian and West African Reformist Muslims" as part of a workshop organized by the UF Center for Global Islamic Studies calendar.ufl.edu/clas_african...

Bamako is under siege after more than 10 years of civil war. The Sahel Research Group and Alex Thurston discuss whether the Jihadist blockade could lead to the fall of the Malian capital in The Conversation theconversation.com/jihadists-ha...

Burkina Faso Dissolves National Electoral Commission — Read more here and check out our past news briefs on the Sahel: mailchi.mp/3366fa81b26a...

Outbreaks of Rift Valley Fever across Mauritania and Senegal — Read more in our latest news brief: mailchi.mp/f70fab52ba47...

Why West Africa needs better trade data - Our latest blog in @theconversation.com theconversation.com/west-africas...

Leonardo Villalon recently gave an insightful presentation on "Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change in the Countries of the African Sahel" at the Universidad Tecnológica del Chocó, in the city of Quibdo, Columbia.

Just out - Mapping the intersection of violence and food insecurity in West Africa, by SRG Olivier Walther and Jennifer Sheahan mapping-africa-transformations.org/mapping-the-...

Upcoming Sahel Seminar with Professor Gregory Mann, Columbia University, September 19, 11:45 AM–12:45 PM, in Rolfs Hall 109, sahelresearch.africa.ufl.edu/events-activ...

Discussing the emergence and future of the Alliance of Sahel States with @fdavion.bsky.social Thanks for attending our Sahel Seminar!

The Sahel Research Group is happy to welcome our new Visitor Scholar, Ambassador Alexander Laskaris, Farès Davion who will be serving as our new Graduate Assistant, and Mohammed Sanda who starts a PhD in Geography!

Victoria Simoni presented MINERVA findings on food security and diet this morning to an International audience in Paris at ICN. Great job representing UF and SRG, Victoria!

We dedicate this week's newsletter to the memory of our friend and colleague Professor Abdou Salam Fall (d. 15 August 2025). Please see end of newsletter for more tributes to the life and work of Prof. Fall. mailchi.mp/26f4fbe903ac...

Violence is not fueled by a lack of food in West Africa, according to recent work by SRG Olivier Walther and Rafael Prieto-Curiel. The lack of seasonality in West African conflicts suggests that the story of hunger is one of political power anl.geog.ufl.edu/conflict-sea...

JOB - 3-year Postdoctoral position with Dr. Vincent Foucher at Science Po Bordeaux: "Governing jihad in Africa: uses and regulations of jihadist and counter-insurgency violence" drive.google.com/file/d/1oLPb... Apply before September 15!

In West Africa, regions subject to food insecurity are not only prone to more violence, but conflict is more concentrated spatially than in other regions anl.geog.ufl.edu/food-insecur...