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[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)...

[Staff] Fiona Wilshusen

• Researcher
• Already during my studies, my research interest was in the field of security, militarisation and development. In my Master's thesis, I focused on the relationship between society and armed actors and the gender implications of this relationship – and thus examined the media framing of (fighting) women in conflicts using the example of the depiction of Kurdish female fighters in British media. Internships with the German Armed Forces and the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in...
• 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 bec...

[Project] Security, armaments and development in countries receiving German arms exports

• In 2007, a web-based interactive map component was added to the arms export database, which BICC has been using since 2006 to study how 170 countries comply with the requirements of the EU Code of Conduct for Arms Exports. An interactive map of the world provides access to the various contents of the database. It provides a global overview, enables a comparison of different countries in the global context or a regional analysis of specific world regions by zooming in on the map. The introduction...

[Project] Security, armaments and development in recipient countries of German arms exports

• BICC has been receiving funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for research and consultancy on arms exports, militarisation and development in recipient countries of German arms exports since 2002. The project consists of five major components: In the framework of this project, BICC compiles and updates a database (https://www.ruestungsexport.info/en) on data concerning the military sector, overall security environment, human rights situat...

[PDF Document] Popular Support-The Only Basis of Legitimacy for West Africa's New Military Regimes.pdf   (480.11 KB)

[Project] Field research Cote d'Ivoire

• In the framework of the European Fatal Transactions network, a BICC team travelled to Cote d'Ivoire to conduct field research. The focus of the research was the question how natural resources influence the transition from war to peace. For this purpose, the project team interviewed government and company representatives, members of civil society and international organizations, a group of peasants as well as members of the rebel movement Force Nouvelles and other militia groups.