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• [Project] Small Arms Control in Africa

  • This project continues the work undertaken in previous projects:  Capacity development and advice on SALW control in Africa (August 2018 - March 2021)  Physical security and stockpile management (PSSM), capacity development and technical advice in West Africa (January 2016 - July 2018) Physical security and stockpile management (PSSM), capacity development and technical advice in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa (January 2016 - July 2018)  Our work is based on a multi-level approa...

• [Project] Small Arms Control in Africa

  • This project continues the work undertaken in previous projects:  Capacity development and advice on SALW control in Africa (August 2018 - March 2021)  Physical security and stockpile management (PSSM), capacity development and technical advice in West Africa (January 2016 - July 2018) Physical security and stockpile management (PSSM), capacity development and technical advice in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa (January 2016 - July 2018)  Our work is based on a multi-level approa...

• [Publication] Today’s solution, tomorrow’s problem? An analysis of West African practices in the use of pro-government militias.

  • In this Paper, I address the question of whether and under what circumstances the deployment of pro-government militias (PGMs) can reduce violence against civilians, specifically in the Sahel. My analysis— based on a literature review and case studies on Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria—suggests that rather than representing a solution, PGMs tend to become part of the problem. In most cases, PGMs actively carry out acts of violence against civilians or passively cont...

• [Publication] Popular Support:The Only Basis of Legitimacy for West Africa's New Military Regimes?

  Africa Today

  • The type of relationship that can be seen among the AES countries could be based on three aspects. First, the failure of ECOWAS to manage the Malian case after the first coup, on August 18, 2020, leading to a second coup, on May 24, 2021, could appear to have created conditions favorable to coups, first in Burkina Faso and then in Niger. Second, Mali has served as an example, a source of inspiration for the other two countries—particularly in terms of capturing popular support—that ...

• [Event] Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland (VAD) 2024 Conference

  • Reconfigurations in Africa - and in African Studies
  • Monday, 30 September 2024: The conference theme is Reconfigurations in Africa - and in African Studies, addressing current and past crises and processes of transformation on the African continent, as well as the need to critically reflect on the means — academic, artistic and otherwise – by which we approach them globally to expand knowledge production. To this point VAD2024 aims to bring Africa-related institutions outside of Africa, including museums, universities and associations, into conversation with parallel instit...

• [Publication] Natural resources in Côte d’Ivoire: Fostering crisis or peace? The cocoa, diamond, gold and oil sectors

  • The trade and exploitation of natural resources such as cocoa, gold, petroleum and diamonds contributed to the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire and still obstruct the peace process in the country. This is one of the conclusions of BICC brief 40, entitled: “Natural Resources in Côte d’Ivoire: Fostering Crisis or Peace? The Cocoa, Diamond, Gold and Oil sectors”. The authors of the BICC brief, Lena Guesnet, Marie Müller and Jolien Schure analyze to what extent the extraction of natural resources has fuele...

• [Project] Physical Security and Stockpile Management (PSSM) Capacity Development and Technical Advice in West Africa

  • With this project, BICC continues capacity development activities on PSSM in two focus countries of the enhancement initiative of the German federal government (Ertüchtigungsinitiative der Bundesregierung): Nigeria and Mali. It complements the PSSM Capacity Building and Advisory project, which is currently undertaken by BICC with the African Union and the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA). BICC has supported PSSM capacity development activities in the ECOWAS region since 2014 when a PSSM ass...

• [Press] New publication \ Pro-government armed militias in the Sahel: ”Conflict solvers” or “spoilers of peace”?

  • International military interventions in the Sahel have so far failed to help improve the conflict situation in the region. At the same time, militias supported by the regional governments are actively involved in the fight against Islamist movements. The Paper "Today’s solution, tomorrow’s problem? An analysis of West African practices in the use of pro-government militias" examines how the operation of these groups affects violence against civilians. This is the first of a row of SAD-Nexus Pape...
  • Monday, 16 May 2022: Fiona Wilshusen, the author of SAD-Nexus Paper (Security–Armament–Development) 1\2021, points to a dangerous dilemma created by pro-government militias (PGM): “In the short term, pro-government militias can help ensure local security under certain circumstances. However, if they develop their own agenda, as in Mali, which jeopardises human rights, security and development, they can turn into spoilers of peace in the long term.” The illegal transfer of weapons and equipment in particular fuels vi...

• [Project] G7 Conference SALW in the Sahel

  • Never before has the Sahel–Maghreb region experienced such a high level of small arms availability. Following the fall of Gaddafi, non-state armed actors overran sizeable weapons depots in Misrata and Zintan, quickly turning Libya into an open market for arms. These small arms and light weapons (SALW) have since headed east (to Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine), west (to armed groups in northern Mali via Algeria and the Tunisian border), and south (to Boko Haram in Nigeria via Niger and Chad). To try...

• [Staff] Dr Boubacar Haidara

  • Senior Researcher
  • Before joining bicc, Boubacar Haidara taught at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ségou (Mali) (2018-2022). He has also carried out a number of research missions for several institutions: World Bank Group, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Clingendael Institute, etc. Boubacar holds a PhD in political science & political geography, University Bordeaux Montaigne and laboratory ‘’Les Afriques dans le Monde’’ (LAM), Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux, France (2015)...