Lakhasly

The Sahel: Challenges and opportunities Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2022

Adama Dieng Article Metrics

Save PDF

Share

Cite

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window] Abstract An abstract is not available for this content.Coupled with weak institutions that have not been able to protect them from armed groups and "terrorist" groups, gross human rights violations by national,Footnote31 regional, foreign and international armed forces will make Sahelians less likely to support counterterrorism operations. Effects of regional violence on the civilian population In addition to the usual consequences of armed conflicts that disrupt the lives of civilians, Sahelians have also faced harsher effects, with civilians becoming direct targets of attacks by various parties to the different armed conflicts taking place in the region. Various reports have shown that armed groups, community self-defence groups and security forces have directly targeted civilians.Footnote32 In the first six months of 2020 alone, in the Central Sahel region which includes Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, there were over 4660 casualties due to armed conflicts and violence.Footnote33 Between February 2021 and February 2022, nearly 2000 civilians were killed in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.Footnote34 These attacks were based on ethnic and religious identity and perceived support to community defence groups. In addition to direct targeting of civilians, civilian objects such as farms, crops and food reserves have been destroyed, adding to the already existing food instability in the region.Footnote35

Decades-long armed conflicts in the Sahel have also limited the accessibility of essential services and humanitarian assistance to the victims and those most vulnerable. The International Committee of the Red Cross has estimated that around 1.5 million Sahelians live in areas that are "virtually impossible to access humanitarian aid and essential services".Footnote36

Protracted armed conflicts in the Sahel also lead to prolonged disruption of education due to the lack of access.There have also been clashes between armed groups and other groups designated as "terrorist" groups in the region. These conflicts were marred with international involvement of the French forces, the US military and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). By the end of 2021, there were over 350,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and over 50,000 Malian refugees.Footnote8

Niger, with shared borders with both Burkina Faso and Mali, has faced the catastrophic consequences of armed clashes among State forces, armed groups and extremist groups over the last decade. Armed violence within the country and the spillover effects from the conflicts in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali on one side and Libya on the other side have contributed to the instability and increasing security concerns in Niger. In the first half of 2021 alone, over 540 conflict-related civilian casualties were reported in Niger.Footnote9 The armed conflict has had a devastating impact on children in Niger: of the 3.8 million people in need of humanitarian aid in Niger, 2.1 million are children and 1.6 million children suffer from malnutrition.Footnote10 More than eighty children between the ages of 15 and 17 years living in towns on the Niger-Burkina Faso border have reportedly been recruited as child soldiers.Footnote11 Over sixty children were killed in conflict-related violence in Niger in 2021 alone.Footnote12

Chad has also witnessed its fair share of violence and intercommunal tensions. The situation in this Sahelian country involves a complex, but devastating, political history. Armed conflicts and situations of violence due to politics, elections in particular, and land use between indigenous and non-indigenous people because of resettlement have been recorded in the past few decades.Footnote13 In the Lac Province of Chad, which is in the Lake Chad Basin, the insecurity due to armed conflicts has had catastrophic humanitarian consequences. In 2021 alone, over 60% of the population of the province (more than 406,500 people) were internally displaced due to prevailing armed conflicts in the province.Footnote14 In the same year over 1.8 million Chadians were affected by severe food insecurity. In addition, the spillover conflicts from other non-Sahelian neighbouring countries such as Libya and Central Africa Republic, and "terrorist" groups in other parts of the Sahel have also led to civilian casualties and displacement.Footnote15 Chad has been at the centre of violent operations of extremist groups, causing hundreds of civilian causalities, including in the capital N'djamena.Additionally, communal violence is prevalent in Burkina Faso, "which threaten[s] to destroy all hope of cohabitation between the communities".Footnote5

Moreover, the weak presence of State institutions outside the capital of Ouagadougou and the distrust the population has in them has led to the proliferation of many self-defence groups in areas threatened by extremist armed groups and other criminal groups. These groups have themselves been parties to several deadly ethnic or communal conflicts. Although considered legitimate at their formation, many have questioned their activities in respect of which it has been argued they violate the human rightsFootnote6 of the people in the region. Neighbouring Mali has been in a continuous armed conflict since 2012. With various peace agreements between the parties to the armed conflict failing to reach a decisive end to the conflict, it is estimated from May 2020 to June 2021, over 2000 people have been killed in the ongoing armed clashes in Mali.Footnote7 The underlying causes of the conflict go back decades and are highly intricate. The lack of trust among various ethnic groups, horizontal inequalities among the people, and environmental concerns, added to the concentration of power in the hands of the few, are among the issues that have been festering for decades and continue to play out until this day. The post-colonial Mali of the 1960s saw rebellions and uprisings from the ethnic groups in the North against the government in Bamako. Economic disparities and other inequalities in the North have led to Northerners distrusting the Central government and supporting the communal defence groups and armed groups in their regions. This led to what has been known as the "Tuareg Rebellions" with stiff resistance from the government.Terrorism The instability in the Sahel region has helped to pave the way for the emergence of some "terrorist" groups in the region. In their efforts to coerce the Sahelian people and government decision-makers for ransom or political concessions, these groups have employed various terrorist activities, including launching deadly attacks against civilians and military targets alike, attacking public and private property, kidnapping individuals, and more.Footnote18 Weak State institutions around the inter-State borders have enabled such groups to flourish in the peripheries and border towns, targeting people in multiple countries at once. Such groups also take advantage of the low security along the borders between the Sahelian States, freely moving between neighbouring countries. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger saw over 4000 casualties of terrorist attacks in 2019;Footnote19 these attacks led, in turn, to the displacement of over half a million people.Footnote20 The growing presence of "terrorist" groups in the Sahel has also intensified organized crime and criminal networks that have served as routes for lucrative criminal activities such as drugs, arms trade, human trafficking and the kidnapping of persons for ransom.In the beginning of the pandemic, COVID-19 had become an additional complicating factor, which had restricted humanitarian access in the region while armed conflict and violence have increased.Footnote3

Armed conflict in the Sahel Ongoing clashes between armed forces and armed groups in the Sahel have forced millions of civilians to flee their homes in various countries within the Sahel region.Footnote4 Many of those who flee are farmers who can no longer till their land, thereby exacerbating an already existing food instability.The ongoing hostilities and food insecurity, fuelled by both armed conflicts and climate change, have also led to displacement and large-scale migration of Sahelians both within the borders of the States and throughout the region as a whole.

The Sahel: Challenges and opportunities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2022

Adama Dieng
Article
Metrics

Save PDF

Share

Cite

Rights & Permissions
[Opens in a new window]
Abstract
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Type
Editorial
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 103 , Issue 918: The Sahel , December 2021 , pp. 765 - 779
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383122000339[Opens in a new window]
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the ICRC.
Stretching 5000 km from the Atlantic Ocean in the West to the Red Sea in the East, the Sahel is home to over 150 million people from tenFootnote1 countries. For the purposes of this edition, four Sahelian countries, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad, have been the central focus. To varying degrees, Sahelians suffer from humanitarian issues brought about by armed conflicts and violent extremism in the region. In addition, although Sahelians are one of the smallest contributors of CO2 globally, the region is among the worst hit by climate change,Footnote2 further exacerbating already fragile humanitarian conditions in the region. The ongoing hostilities and food insecurity, fuelled by both armed conflicts and climate change, have also led to displacement and large-scale migration of Sahelians both within the borders of the States and throughout the region as a whole. In the beginning of the pandemic, COVID-19 had become an additional complicating factor, which had restricted humanitarian access in the region while armed conflict and violence have increased.Footnote3

Armed conflict in the Sahel
Ongoing clashes between armed forces and armed groups in the Sahel have forced millions of civilians to flee their homes in various countries within the Sahel region.Footnote4 Many of those who flee are farmers who can no longer till their land, thereby exacerbating an already existing food instability. As will be seen below, each conflict situation in the Sahel region is unique, with its own complex history and diversity in actors. However, even with such complex histories, international humanitarian law (IHL) must be respected. International humanitarian law is not merely a slogan, it is a responsibility.

Burkina Faso currently finds itself in a devastating state due to armed conflicts and other situations of violence, with various causes to the different conflicts. There was growing instability since the 2014 Uprising and subsequently from 2016 on, there were ongoing attacks against the Burkinabe military forces and civilians by extremist groups. These groups have had a strong presence in Burkina Faso and neighbouring Mali. These various extremist groups have also had conflicts with each other due to the ideological differences of the groups they have pledged their allegiance to (i.e. Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State). Since 2015, over 2000 people have been killed and 1.5 million displaced due to violence attributed to extremist groups in Burkina Faso. Additionally, communal violence is prevalent in Burkina Faso, "which threaten[s] to destroy all hope of cohabitation between the communities”.Footnote5

Moreover, the weak presence of State institutions outside the capital of Ouagadougou and the distrust the population has in them has led to the proliferation of many self-defence groups in areas threatened by extremist armed groups and other criminal groups. These groups have themselves been parties to several deadly ethnic or communal conflicts. Although considered legitimate at their formation, many have questioned their activities in respect of which it has been argued they violate the human rightsFootnote6 of the people in the region.

Neighbouring Mali has been in a continuous armed conflict since 2012. With various peace agreements between the parties to the armed conflict failing to reach a decisive end to the conflict, it is estimated from May 2020 to June 2021, over 2000 people have been killed in the ongoing armed clashes in Mali.Footnote7 The underlying causes of the conflict go back decades and are highly intricate. The lack of trust among various ethnic groups, horizontal inequalities among the people, and environmental concerns, added to the concentration of power in the hands of the few, are among the issues that have been festering for decades and continue to play out until this day.

The post-colonial Mali of the 1960s saw rebellions and uprisings from the ethnic groups in the North against the government in Bamako. Economic disparities and other inequalities in the North have led to Northerners distrusting the Central government and supporting the communal defence groups and armed groups in their regions. This led to what has been known as the "Tuareg Rebellions" with stiff resistance from the government. Although various peace agreements were signed in the past decades, none have quelled the armed conflicts involving the Tuareg communities. In addition, even though not at the same level of intensity, other groups, such as the Arabs, Songhay and Fulani communities in post-colonial Mali, have been involved in armed violence as well. The past ten years have witnessed ongoing clashes between the Malian army and armed groups in the North. There have also been clashes between armed groups and other groups designated as “terrorist” groups in the region.

These conflicts were marred with international involvement of the French forces, the US military and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

By the end of 2021, there were over 350,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and over 50,000 Malian refugees.Footnote8

Niger, with shared borders with both Burkina Faso and Mali, has faced the catastrophic consequences of armed clashes among State forces, armed groups and extremist groups over the last decade. Armed violence within the country and the spillover effects from the conflicts in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali on one side and Libya on the other side have contributed to the instability and increasing security concerns in Niger. In the first half of 2021 alone, over 540 conflict-related civilian casualties were reported in Niger.Footnote9 The armed conflict has had a devastating impact on children in Niger: of the 3.8 million people in need of humanitarian aid in Niger, 2.1 million are children and 1.6 million children suffer from malnutrition.Footnote10 More than eighty children between the ages of 15 and 17 years living in towns on the Niger–Burkina Faso border have reportedly been recruited as child soldiers.Footnote11 Over sixty children were killed in conflict-related violence in Niger in 2021 alone.Footnote12

Chad has also witnessed its fair share of violence and intercommunal tensions. The situation in this Sahelian country involves a complex, but devastating, political history. Armed conflicts and situations of violence due to politics, elections in particular, and land use between indigenous and non-indigenous people because of resettlement have been recorded in the past few decades.Footnote13 In the Lac Province of Chad, which is in the Lake Chad Basin, the insecurity due to armed conflicts has had catastrophic humanitarian consequences. In 2021 alone, over 60% of the population of the province (more than 406,500 people) were internally displaced due to prevailing armed conflicts in the province.Footnote14 In the same year over 1.8 million Chadians were affected by severe food insecurity. In addition, the spillover conflicts from other non-Sahelian neighbouring countries such as Libya and Central Africa Republic, and “terrorist” groups in other parts of the Sahel have also led to civilian casualties and displacement.Footnote15 Chad has been at the centre of violent operations of extremist groups, causing hundreds of civilian causalities, including in the capital N'djamena.

In 2021, there have been over 300 casualties in these conflicts in Chad.Footnote16 The country's political crisis and power struggles have also led to several incidents involving political violence during and after elections. The country's socio-economic problems – 42% of the population lives under the poverty lineFootnote17 – have also caused indignation toward the government. This indignation, in turn, has added fuel to recruitment efforts by non-State armed groups (NSAGs).

Terrorism
The instability in the Sahel region has helped to pave the way for the emergence of some “terrorist” groups in the region. In their efforts to coerce the Sahelian people and government decision-makers for ransom or political concessions, these groups have employed various terrorist activities, including launching deadly attacks against civilians and military targets alike, attacking public and private property, kidnapping individuals, and more.Footnote18 Weak State institutions around the inter-State borders have enabled such groups to flourish in the peripheries and border towns, targeting people in multiple countries at once. Such groups also take advantage of the low security along the borders between the Sahelian States, freely moving between neighbouring countries.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger saw over 4000 casualties of terrorist attacks in 2019;Footnote19 these attacks led, in turn, to the displacement of over half a million people.Footnote20 The growing presence of “terrorist” groups in the Sahel has also intensified organized crime and criminal networks that have served as routes for lucrative criminal activities such as drugs, arms trade, human trafficking and the kidnapping of persons for ransom.

The individual States in the Sahel have each put in place various counterterrorism measures at the national level in an attempt to confront these challenges. However, it has been argued that these counterterrorism measures have caused more civilian casualties than they were intended to prevent.Footnote21

There have also been regional efforts in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel. In 2017, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger formed the G5 Sahel joint force to respond to the growing presence of armed and violent groups. The G5 was established for the founding countries to pool resources and efforts to fight common security threats and ensure the security of their citizens.Footnote22 In 2014–2015, several Lake Chad Basin countries, such as Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, along with Benin, joined forces to create the Multinational Joint Task Force to fight against terrorism in these States.Footnote23 This taskforce was authorized by the African Union in 2015.Footnote24 To support the counterterrorism measures of Sahelian countries and at the invitation of Mali, France had launched Operation Serval in 2013 which was succeeded by Operation Barkhane in 2014 and deployed 5000 French troops.Footnote25

Notwithstanding, there have been allegations of violations of IHL and international human rights law (IHRL)Footnote26 by the national forces,Footnote27 regional efforts such as the G5 joint force,Footnote28 and France's Operation Barkhane.Footnote29 Reports have surfaced that these forces have targeted civilians, carried out summary executions, and engaged in torture, rape, enforced disappearances and other reprisals.Footnote30 Such violations risk undermining any counterterrorism gain made by the forces and further breaking the trust and social contract of the local population with the governments involved. Coupled with weak institutions that have not been able to protect them from armed groups and “terrorist” groups, gross human rights violations by national,Footnote31 regional, foreign and international armed forces will make Sahelians less likely to support counterterrorism operations.

Effects of regional violence on the civilian population
In addition to the usual consequences of armed conflicts that disrupt the lives of civilians, Sahelians have also faced harsher effects, with civilians becoming direct targets of attacks by various parties to the different armed conflicts taking place in the region. Various reports have shown that armed groups, community self-defence groups and security forces have directly targeted civilians.Footnote32 In the first six months of 2020 alone, in the Central Sahel region which includes Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, there were over 4660 casualties due to armed conflicts and violence.Footnote33 Between February 2021 and February 2022, nearly 2000 civilians were killed in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.Footnote34 These attacks were based on ethnic and religious identity and perceived support to community defence groups. In addition to direct targeting of civilians, civilian objects such as farms, crops and food reserves have been destroyed, adding to the already existing food instability in the region.Footnote35

Decades-long armed conflicts in the Sahel have also limited the accessibility of essential services and humanitarian assistance to the victims and those most vulnerable. The International Committee of the Red Cross has estimated that around 1.5 million Sahelians live in areas that are “virtually impossible to access humanitarian aid and essential services”.Footnote36

Protracted armed conflicts in the Sahel also lead to prolonged disruption of education due to the lack of access. The ongoing hostilities have led to the closure or destruction of over 6000 schools,Footnote37 infringing upon the right to education of children. Schools provide not only education but also a psychological safe harbour where children can be children and interact with their peers in a safe environment,Footnote38 the destruction of which causes significant difficulty in the lives of children. For the seven million Sahelian children out of school due to armed conflicts and violence,Footnote39 the destruction of schools jeopardizes not only their present but also their future lives.Footnote40

Various reports have also shown that children in the region, especially young boys, have been direct targets of attacks by different armed groups and other parties to the conflicts,Footnote41 in violation of IHL and IHRL's rules safeguarding children from harm. Young children have also been recruited by armed forces and armed groupsFootnote42 in the Sahel as fighters or other roles, notwithstanding the prohibitions on the recruitment and use of child soldiers under IHL and IHRL. This puts children at risk of being killed, wounded and detained in armed conflicts. Such involvement of children in armed conflicts also has long-term psychological effects, often impeding their re-integration into society post-conflict. The continued exposure to violence makes these children particularly prone to mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.Footnote43 In October 2021, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a first-of-its-kind resolution put forward by Niger and Norway on the protection of education in armed conflicts.Footnote44

Girls and women in the Sahel also face high rates of sexual and gender-based violence in the hands of armed forces and various armed groups. Rape, forced and child marriages, female genital mutilation and trafficking of girls and women have increased in the Sahel in the past decade.Footnote45 Stories published in this edition of the Review of girls and women subjected to sexual violence highlight the severe impacts of sexual and gender-based violence in the Sahel and demonstrate the importance of strengthening the protection of girls and women in armed conflicts, and the respect of IHL in general.

Furthermore, impunity and lack of accountability for violations of IHL and IHRL in the Sahel continue to fuel existing grievances in the region. Although reports have shown serious violations of IHL and IHRL by national, foreign and international armed forces and various armed groups, there has been little to no accountability or redress to ensure respect for IHL and human rights. IHL violations in connection to the armed conflicts and human rights law violations must be investigated. This requires States to take domestic measures as well as international support to ensure that such investigations are effective. This will not only redress past violations but will also help maintain social cohesion in the Sahel in the future.

To reiterate, international humanitarian law is not merely a slogan; it is a responsibility. All States have an obligation to respect and ensure respect of this body of law. The violation of IHL, as well as human rights, first and foremost affects human dignity, based on which various international humanitarian and human rights laws were drafted upon. Therefore, human dignity requires respect and at least accountability in the cases of its violation.