Insight on Africa

Afriyie, Frederick Appiah

doi: 10.1177/09750878251409058pmid: N/A

Terrorism remains a critical threat to Africa’s stability, with Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) emerging as a dominant force in Mali and the broader Sahel since its formation in 2017. Formed through the merger of multiple jihadist groups aligned with al-Qaeda, JNIM has expanded by exploiting Mali’s political fragility, weak governance, ethnic tensions and the withdrawal of international security forces. This expansion is facilitated by the group’s adaptive organisational structure, strategic local alliances and engagement in illicit economies. This study employs an integrative literature review to critically assess scholarly and policy-based evidence on the factors contributing to JNIM’s rise. Grounded in the state failure theory, the review explores how systemic failures—political instability, socio-economic marginalisation and security vacuums—have created fertile ground for insurgent entrenchment. By synthesising diverse sources, the study offers a comprehensive understanding of JNIM’s growth and resilience, highlighting the urgent need for holistic, context-sensitive counterterrorism strategies in Mali and across the Sahel.

Botah, Elvis Banoemuleng; Kipo-Sunyehzi, Daniel Dramani

doi: 10.1177/09750878261433476pmid: N/A

The article contributes to how climate affects people’s livelihoods in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) of Sub-Saharan Africa. Also, contributes to discourse on the global climate-security nexus, specifically focusing on the LCB. Theoretically, it utilises environmental resource scarcity theory to analyse climate risk vulnerabilities and adaptation measures. A qualitative design with data from individual interviews, group interviews and direct observations across countries—Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The study found climate change affected the livelihoods of people in diverse ways, including food shortages, low yields from farming and fishing. It recommends institutional reformation and realignment towards effective coordination of climate actions.

Suleiman, Muhammad Dan; Aldamer, Shafi

doi: 10.1177/09750878261461620pmid: N/A

This article examines Saudi Arabia’s relations with West Africa through the lenses of development cooperation, security engagement and reciprocity. Existing literature has disproportionately framed Saudi Arabia’s role in the region primarily through the prism of religio-ideological influence, while affording insufficient attention to the Kingdom’s material contributions to development, infrastructure, humanitarian assistance and regional security. Drawing on selected case studies from West Africa and employing complex interdependence as its analytical framework, the article demonstrates that Saudi engagement in the region encompasses areas such as water provision, healthcare, transport, investment, diplomacy and multilateral security cooperation. It posits that these relations are no longer adequately understood as unidirectional flows of aid or influence. Instead, they are increasingly characterised by reciprocal political, diplomatic and strategic exchanges, particularly within the evolving landscape of Saudi Vision 2030 and shifting geopolitical alignments across the sub-region. The article provides a more comprehensive account of Saudi Arabia’s engagements with West African countries, which is becoming increasingly dialogic, politically consequential and pertinent to emerging multipolar dynamics.

Coker, Wincharles

doi: 10.1177/09750878251409054pmid: N/A

As one of the world’s terrorism hotspots under jihadist control, West Africa is home to the nascent inter-state military Alliance of Sahel Countries. United in rebellion against democratic praxis, the putschists aim to exterminate terrorism on the homestead and confront the coloniality of power. However, despite their popular appeal, scholars are yet to parse the apologetic rhetoric employed by the Sahelian military heads of states to defend their grip on power and justify their actions. This article unpacks the messaging of performative disobedience crafted by Niger’s Abdourahamane Tchiani, Mali’s Assimi Goïta and Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré. Using the twin rhetorical theory of apologia and kategoria, the work examines televised speeches of the coup leaders at the maiden summit of the Alliance organised in July 2024 in Niamey, Niger’s administrative capital. Analysed through the lens of postcolonial deconstruction, the speeches showed that the putschists legitimise their authority, by deploying tactics of a three-tiered stasis, emotive kategoria, othering, erotema and image repair whose perlocutionary force affirms the urgency for self-rule. This droit divin, the analysis revealed, is anchored on the coup leaders’ sophistry that interrogates the culpability of imperial forces in exacerbating insecurity and under-development in the sub-region.

Kasaija, Phillip Apuuli

doi: 10.1177/09750878251401535pmid: N/A

Uganda’s March 2025 military intervention in South Sudan was officially announced by the chief of defence forces (CDF) of Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) via social media. The informality of the announcement was much in habit with how the current government runs Uganda. The intervention followed armed clashes between elements of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and a militia group called the White Army in Upper Nile state of the Republic of South Sudan. This article argues that Uganda’s intervention can appropriately be explained from a realist approach. The main question the article seeks to answer is: Is Uganda a stabiliser or a meddler in South Sudan affairs? For the March 2025 intervention, Uganda has generally cited the Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation and Status of Forces Agreement 2014 with South Sudan to denote a stabilisation role. However, the intervention can be deemed as Uganda meddling in the internal affairs of South Sudan on two grounds: first, the UPDF’s active support of the government and, second, General Kainerugaba’s threats against Riek Machar in particular and the Nuer community in general.

Hatungimana, William

doi: 10.1177/09750878261445755pmid: N/A

This article explores why a decrease in the incumbent liberation party’s support in the 2024 general election influenced power turnover in Botswana but not in South Africa and Namibia. It examines the ideological influence of liberation parties and citizen dissatisfaction and argues that electoral institutions significantly influenced election outcomes. The first-past-the-post electoral system, which incentivises pre-election coalition-building and favours large parties, facilitated Botswana’s opposition party coalition (UDC) electoral victory. However, the proportional representation (PR) system in South Africa and the mixed system (PR and two rounds) in Namibia disincentivised opposition coalitions, allowing incumbent parties to remain in power despite citizen dissatisfaction.