West Africa

Mali and its international partners need to seize the moment for national dialogue to forestall renewed political and security crises. 

Overdue legislative elections in Guinea could rapidly degenerate into violence in the absence of consensus on electoral procedures.

Rising piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, which supplies around 40 per cent of Europe’s oil and 29 per cent of the U.S.’s, demands effective regional security cooperation and better economic governance to prevent the region becoming another Gulf of Aden. The full report is currently only available in French.

President Alassane Ouattara’s coalition is walking a dangerous path toward polarisation by repeating mistakes made by previous governments that could ultimately lead Côte d’Ivoire back to crisis.

International actors need to commit to a common strategy to help coup-plagued Guinea-Bissau implement the security, justice and electoral reforms it needs to escape its status as a link in drug trafficking to Europe.

Calls for military intervention in Mali are increasing but it could sink the state, which is already on the brink of dissolution, further into chaos.

Unemployment, corruption, nepotism and impunity threaten to entrench social and political divisions and jeopardise Liberia’s democracy unless the government addresses persisting historical enmities.

The ability of the Bissau-Guinean authorities to withstand the 26 December 2011 coup attempt bears witness to the improvements since the previous military turmoil of 1 April 2010, but crucial political, military and judicial developments still lie ahead as the country prepares for presidential elections in March and parliamentary polls later this year.