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Contributions

The views and perspectives contained in these Blogs are from individual contributors and external sources, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or position of the Cordoba Peace Institute - Geneva. The links are neither intended as an endorsement of particular publications nor the only source for the updates, but to connect to information in the public domain, for those interested in background or further details.

The Central Sahel region includes several hotspots of instability and violence that have been on the rise for at least five years, with mounting numbers of dead, wounded and displaced people as a result of or during military operations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger...

Moktar Aoufa

In February 2020, an agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban was signed in Doha, Qatar, promising the complete withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan in May 2021. This agreement was supposed to put an end to an endless war, having claimed the lives of nearly 46,000 Afghan civilians and more than 2,500 American soldiers (1). Indeed, this war, the longest ever waged by the United States, had never succeeded in entirely eliminating the forces of the Taliban regime, which throughout the conflict maintained a guerrilla state in the occupied country, despite the enormous means employed by the US Department of Defense. One thousand billion dollars will have been spent (2) and 775,000 American soldiers deployed during the 20 years of occupation (3), without ever succeeding in bringing peace to the country.

Kilian Bello

After years of conflict, Iraq has entered a phase of reconstruction and reconciliation. Although the Islamic State (IS) has been defeated, and territories reconquered, there are still numerous wounds to be healed before a lasting peace can be achieved. Indeed, the violence and the magnitude of the conflict has contributed to division within Iraqi society and increased the mistrust between the different communities.

Kilian Bello and Charlotte Mounier

The whole Lake Chad basin is affected by the insurrectional jihadist dynamics of the armed group Boko Haram (BH), recently weakened by the incursion of the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) and the reported assassination of its leader, Abubakar Shekau (1). Northeast Nigeria is fertile ground for massive violations of human rights, children’s rights, and International Humanitarian Law, particularly affecting the condition of women and girls in conflict areas. Indeed, thousands of children and more especially girls are kidnapped, enrolled in armed groups, abused, and reduced to the status of slaves..

by Meg-Ann Lenoble

April 20, 2021 was marked by the death of Idriss Déby Itno, the man who, for the last thirty years, had occupied the position of President of Chad. This unexpected death, while Déby was – according to official (and contested) information – on the frontline, facing the rebels of the Front pour l’Alternance et la Concorde au Tchad (FACT), caused a shock that was not only felt within the country, but by all the other actors present in the Sahel region.

by Kilian Bello