Mapping Transnational Conflict in North and West Africa
- Title
- Mapping Transnational Conflict in North and West Africa
- Speaker(s)
- Speaker: Olivier Walther # University of Florida
- Date and Time
- 20th Jan 2021 16:00 - 20th Jan 2021 17:30
- Location
- Microsoft Teams
- URL
- http://www.cas.ed.ac.uk/events/seminar_series/2020_2021/mapping_transnational_conflict_in_north_and_west_africa
African governments are increasingly confronted with new forms of political violence. The situation is particularly worrying in the Sahara-Sahel where violence is on the rise. This degrading security situation has prompted African countries and their partners to intervene militarily to stabilize the region and to prevent the spread of extremism and violence against civilians. However, these initiatives face many obstacles due to the transnational nature and geography of violence. Tensions regionalize across state borders when armed groups, defeated by counter-insurgency efforts, relocate to other countries. This study maps the evolution of violence across North and West Africa from 1997-2019, with a particular focus on Mali, Lake Chad and Libya. In the regions experiencing the highest levels of political insecurity, it identifies whether and how conflicts tend to cluster or spread, potentially across national borders, and what is the impact of foreign military interventions on the geography of violence. The work is based on a new spatial indicator of political violence designed to assess the long-term evolution of conflicts and provide policy options.
