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"Niger"
Recommended research
published by Kars de Bruijne and Clara Gehrling
on January 24, 2025
Bandits and militant Islamist groups from the Sahel and Lake Chad increasingly threaten border communities in Northeast Benin and North West Nigeria. These actors exploit safe havens in National parks as well as longstanding social, ethnic, and religious ties in these border areas to evade security forces. Enhanced security cooperation and coordination as well as prioritizing legitimate livelihoods are essential to stemming this threat.
Spotlight
published by Matthew La Lime
on October 29, 2024
Black Axe’s violent organized criminal network undermines economic development and political reform within Nigeria while scamming victims abroad out of billions via cybercrime.
Spotlight
published by Kunle Adebajo and Hamza Ibrahim
on October 21, 2024
Criminal gangs in Nigeria’s North West region have grown increasingly lethal, routinizing mass abductions, seizing farms in an important breadbasket, and causing massive internal displacement.
Infographic
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on May 13, 2024
After noteworthy gains in the previous decade under democratically elected governments, the derailing of Niger’s constitutional order by the military coup in July 2023 has resulted in a deterioration in security, economic wellbeing, and agency for Nigerien citizens.
Spotlight
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on July 27, 2023
The attempted military coup in Niger threatens to undermine the relative progress the country has made under its civilian democratic leaders and amplifies Niger’s risks for insecurity, economic crises, and political instability.
Spotlight
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on June 5, 2023
To reverse Nigeria’s deteriorating security environment, experts urge the Tinubu administration to surge security forces in identified hotspots while prioritizing civilian harm reduction, improving accountability of the security sector, and rebuilding trust.
Joseph Siegle explains the importance of Nigeria’s election, including the key role youths and civil society organizations will play, plus security challenges the West African nation faces.
Spotlight
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on December 14, 2021
Escalating attacks on communities in North West Nigeria by criminal gangs, including mass kidnappings of school children, exploit the limited security sector presence in the region.
Recommended research
published by Joseph Siegle
on November 19, 2021
Boko Haram’s violent campaign for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has led to the growing isolation of this region. As Boko Haram’s violent attacks have increased, fewer traders are crossing the border to take the risk. Internet and cell phone access have similarly been restricted due to Boko Haram’s bombing of 24 base transceiver stations belonging to at least six telecommunications companies in the northeast. Such isolation serves Boko Haram’s aims well. Ideologically, the sect claims it seeks a purified version of Islam. Severing the region’s links with the outside world curbs the influence of external ideas, technology, and resources – leaving more space for the group’s message.
Country in Focus
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on September 14, 2021
The Africa Center’s analyses examine how navigating Nigeria's challenges go hand-in-hand with fortifying the country’s democratic organs, avenues for youth-engagement, and security sector reforms.
Recommended research
published by Matthew T. Page, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Paper
on July 28, 2021
MINUSMA relies on diesel for to power its vehicles and its generators. This has implications beyond the security of its fuel supply convoys however, since the diesel trade plays an important part in the political economy of northern Mali. In that region, less than five percent of the population has access to reliable electricity and armed groups often control fuel supply chains. MINUSMA has begun piloting using renewable energy sources, including solar energy. Beyond reducing the exposure of its fuel convoys, such initiatives could also help to build peace by serving as an entry point to renewable energy in northern cities.
Recommended research
published by Taylor Hanna, David K. Bohl, Mickey Rafa, and Jonathan D. Moyer, UNDP
on June 23, 2021
Most deaths in war are not the result of battlefield clashes, nor are fighters among the largest cohort of casualties. Rather, civilians suffer the most fatalities from conflict—a result of the damage to the infrastructure and livelihoods that provide food, water, shelter, and health care. UNDP estimates that for each death directly linked to the violence started by Boko Haram in 2009, nearly nine more have been killed due to lack of food and resources. This means that as of late 2020, the conflict has led to an estimated 350,000 fatalities and 1.8 million children unable to attend school. While northeastern Nigeria was unlikely to have achieved any SDGs even in the absence of conflict, the violence has halted progress and set back human and economic development in the region for decades.
