West Africa Archive

Voters in the West African nation of Mali will go to the polls this weekend for legislative elections that may offer insight into the country’s uncertain political trajectory. Mali descended into chaos last year, when a coup d’etat in the country’s south paved the way for Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida to take over the northern two-thirds of the country. In late-July, Malians turned out in record numbers for a presidential election that the international community—particularly, France and the U.S.—had been calling for as a condition for unlocking nearly $4 billion in pledged assistance. That election came just six months […]

Lists of African success stories do not tend to include Chad. More than half of the country’s citizens live below the poverty line. According to data collected by the United Nations, most have spent less than two years at school. From 2008 to 2010, the European Union and U.N. deployed peacekeepers to the country’s unstable eastern border with Sudan. At one point, rebels managed to assault the capital, N’Djamena. Yet this year, Western powers and the U.N. have turned to Chad to help manage new crises in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR). The supposed basket case has suddenly […]

Can United Nations peacekeepers ever transform themselves into effective war-fighters? This question has dogged the organization since its failures in the Balkans, Somalia and Rwanda. But it has gained additional urgency over the past year as the U.N. has searched for new strategies to stabilize Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Security Council has wagered that blue helmeted troops can neuter determined rebel forces in both cases, if under very different strategic circumstances. Some U.N. officials fret that the council has placed too much faith in these military efforts. Yet there has been some good news […]