This book seeks to critically examine the challenges of fragility and security in West Africa, along with the factors of resilience. It seeks to investigate key drivers of conflict and violence, and the way in which they impact the countries of the subregion. Along with emerging threats and challenges, these include the challenge of youth inclusion; migration; regional imbalances; extractives; the fragility of political institutions and managing the competition for power; security; and land. The book explores how the subregion, under the auspices of the regional organization ECOWAS has become a pioneer on the continent in terms of addressing regional challenges. This book also seeks to identify key lessons in the dynamics of resilience against political violence and civil war, drawn from countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote d’Ivoire that can be useful for countries around the world in the midst of similar situations. Finally, it draws on knowledge and findings from a series background papers written by leading experts, and provides insights from the perspectives of academics and development practitioners.

The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa [Relever les défis de la stabilité et de la sécurité en Afrique de l’Ouest]

: Vivid examples of weak military professionalism in Africa are regularly evident in news accounts of instability on the continent. Militaries collapsing in the face of attacks by irregular forces, coups, mutinies, looting, human rights abuses against civilian populations, corruption, and engagement in illicit trafficking activities are widespread. This pattern persists decades after the end of colonialism, despite billions of dollars of security sector assistance and longstanding rhetoric on the need to strengthen civil-military relations on the continent. The costs for not having established strong professional militaries are high: persistent instability, chronic poverty, deterred investment, and stunted democratization. The reasons for the ongoing inability to establish effective, respected militaries in so many African countries are complex but largely stem from political incentives. African militaries created in the colonial era were intended to protect the government from rather than for citizens. To do this, ethnic minorities were often disproportionately recruited into the militaries as a check on majority groups. These patterns persisted in the post-colonial period as military leaders from minority groups had strong incentives to resist a transition to democracy and majority rule. Lacking systematic checks and balances, the interweaving of political, military, and economic interests has endured and, in some cases, intensified in the decades since the end of colonialism. Control of the military has been seen as the vehicle to power and wealth in Africa. Corruption has flourished. This has fostered a politicization of the military and ongoing competition and collusion among politicians and security leaders seeking to gain the upper hand.

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Advancing Military Professionalism in Africa

Peacekeeping has grown in significance over the years within international relations, yet only a few analyses have applied the frameworks of international relations theory to the issues of peacekeeping. This paper begins with a view to broaden that analysis, and to look at three of the African countries that have contributed significant resources over the years to help restore peace on their continent: Nigeria, Ethiopia and Rwanda. The following article analyses these three countries (and not South Africa, which features a great deal already in the literature) from the point of view of their military capabilities, including sources of training and equipment, after assessing the motivations, challenges and opportunities of each to contribute to peacekeeping in Africa. From that basis, the article assesses the positive and negative impacts these militaries bring to the region's conflicts, as well as the impact of their troops for the sending nations. Lastly, the article assesses the concept of ‘African solu...

Thinking through the role of Africa's militaries in peacekeeping: the cases of Nigeria, Ethiopia and Rwanda

Dominant views about politicized armies tend to portray the political actors in the military as bearers of the collective orientation of the entire institution towards democracy. Also civil society is mostly qualified as a democratising space. Nonetheless, these notions obscure the janiform potentials of political agencies in transitional states, where the military and civil society are neither exclusively authoritarian nor democratic. Essentially transition to democracy from military rule and post-authoritarian consolidation is a dialectical see-saw between genuine democratic interests in civil society and similar actors within military institutions on the one hand; and a bloc of undemocratic interests constituted by military actors and their allies in civil society on the other hand. Using Nigeria’s experience of transitions to civil rule and the post-military era, I argue that neither the military nor civil society fits the straitjacket of a mere harbinger or obstacle to democracy; as their historical roles complexly intersect both outcomes. Keywords: Civil Society, Democratisation, Democratisers, De-democratisers, Two Faces

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Two Faces of Civil Society and the Military in Nigeria’s Democratisation

1 Africa Security Brief No. 36 The Sahel has experienced the most rapid increase in militant Islamist group activity of any region in Africa in recent years. Violent events involving extremist groups in the region have doubled every year since 2015. In 2019, there have been more than 700 such violent episodes (see Figure 1). Fatalities linked to these events have increased from 225 to 2,000 during the same period. This surge in violence has uprooted more than 900,000 people, including 500,000 in Burkina Faso in 2019 alone.

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Responding to the Rise in Violent Extremism in the Sahel

* Military acceptance of civilian authority remains a missing piece of Africa's democratic transition puzzle.* While often perceived as an unwanted restriction on the purview of the security sector, the doctrine of democratic civilian control of the military boosts the legitimacy, capabilities, and performance of the armed forces.* The practical realization of this doctrine requires Africa's parliaments to assert and exercise more robust control and oversight of the security sector.HIGHLIGHTSWar is too important to be left to the generals.- Georges Clemenceau, former prime minister of FranceIt is a difficult period for everybody, but we believe that it is a political thing. We are not politicians. We are military professionals and we are determined to remain so. Nobody, no matter what, no matter the effort, will drag us into it.- Nigerian Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Abdurrahman Dambazzau in May 2010 shortly after the office and authorities of the Nigerian presidency were transferred to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan by the National Assembly following the death of President Umani Yar'AduaA spate of military coups from 2008 to 2010 in Mauritania, Guinea, Niger, and Madagascar raised the specter of a return to military rule in Africa. While the subsequent resumption of civilian government in Guinea and Niger has reduced these concerns, evidence of military influence in politics remains widespread across the continent. This is prominently in view in Egypt where, in the midst of political transition, the military is attempting to maintain a privileged role for itself despite the widespread demands for genuine democratic reform.In Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, Angola, Rwanda, and many other African states, democratization or the consolidation of political reforms has been severely inhibited by armed forces that regularly intervene in political and economic matters. In Uganda, for instance, the military is permitted to select 10 officers to serve as members of parliament. In some cases, the armed forces operate autonomously and even maintain commercial interests outside the military budget. In Rwanda, the military grows, buys, processes, and exports commercial crops through a military-owned company. ' Military officers in Angola participate in contract negotiations with foreign companies, sit on corporate boards, and are majority shareholders in telecommunications firms.2Such practices are not only counterproductive to democratic governance, but also undermine stability, economic development, and even the interests of the militaries themselves. In cases where militaries have assumed total control over government, the results have usually been disastrous. Annual economic growth rates in Nigeria and Mali, for example, have been on average a full 3 percentage points lower during periods of military versus civilian rule. While lauded for their discipline and quick decisionmaking, militaries have little background in job creation, macroeconomic policy, public health, or the many other complex challenges of governing. More generally, military decisionmaking is rigidly hierarchical and beyond appeal, whereas in the public domain, policy implementation tends to be more effective when built through a consultative, transparent, and deliberative process.Beyond the blunt military putsch, increasingly prevalent and sinister developments in Africa are the emergence of "democratic" and "creeping" coups. In the former, a military coup is staged, followed by a tactical withdrawal to hold elections that are "won" by a recently retired military officer - to the accolades of both regional and international organizations. Such was the case following the 2008 coup in Mauritania by General Mohamed OuId Abdel Aziz. In creeping coups, civilian leaders will slowly erode the powers and authorities of legislatures, judiciaries, civil society groups, and other potential sources of opposition. …

Mathurin C Houngnikpo

Papers

Africa's Militaries: A Missing Link in Democratic Transitions