Amid the Sahel struggles with coups, insurgencies and extremism, protecting and promoting human rights is a particularly thorny challenge. Mamadou Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, Niger’s ambassador to the United States, and Maître Ahmed Salem Bouhoubeyni, president of Mauritania’s National Human Rights Commission, discuss the vital role that human rights organizations play in the Sahel and lessons from Niger’s effort to institutionalize human rights.
The United States has not traditionally viewed the Sahel as a region of vital interest, whether in terms of security or from an economic or business perspective. This has led to a pattern of reactive involvement shaped by the circumstances of specific events rather than proactive commitments. This pattern reveals the lack of a comprehensive strategy for the volatile Western Sahel region, which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. In April 2022, President Joe Biden announced that the US government would advance the “U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability” in coastal West Africa by prioritizing a partnership with Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, and Togo.
USIP’s Heather Ashby, Jude Mutah, Andrew Scobell and Mona Yacoubian examine how the invasion of Ukraine might have shifted Moscow’s decision-making in other regions — such as Syria, the Sahel and China.
The ongoing effort to use negotiations without preconditions to resolve the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front over Western Sahara has not produced results. The April 6, 2010 report of the United Nations secretary-general to the U.N. Security Council admits that there has been no movement on the core substantive issues.
The United Nations' efforts to resolve the dispute over Western Sahara—with James Baker serving as mediator—is examined to develop lessons learned on international conflict mediation.