While Burkina Faso has not in more recent times witnessed classic civil wars like other West African states, there are many similar traits between the current situation and a civil war with several groups including the government fighting internally.

Violence has continued in the country despite crackdowns from government forces, and due to Chad’s strategic position in the region there are potential spill-over effects following this change in the degree of internal stability in Chad which will affect the region as a whole.

Local peace negotiations such as the ones between Fulani and Dogon can contribute to peace building plans as they often provide a comprehensive insight into the roots of the problems.

Located in West Africa, Guinea-Bissau, with its 1.8 million people, constitutes what has for many years been a fragile state located in between Senegal and Guinea. Beside the overshadowing problem of not being able to sustain a stable governing system, the country is struggling with networks of drug trafficking – a problem that is not new, but has proven hard to combat in the given security context.

With water scarcity in some highly populated regions projected to increase over the coming decades, some have argued that wars over access to and control of water may become some of the most common, most devastating conflicts of the 21st century.

The Japanese military presence in the Horn of Africa commenced in 2009, when two Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) destroyers were dispatched to the region to participate in counterpiracy operations following an emergency order from the cabinet. In 2011, in order to facilitate this, Japan Self-Defence Force (JSDF) Base Djibouti was established.

In the last months of 2020, Israel normalized its ties with four Arab countries. In the case of Morocco, the US issued a proclamation, recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, making it the first country in the world to do so. What consequences such recognition will have on what is essentially a conflict in limbo is unclear.

While there is no doubt that both national and international anti-piracy laws will lead to better conditions for the fight against piracy, it is evidently important to be aware of the opportunities that national laws have where international law cannot deliver.

While many assessments in the days after the coup in August foresaw instability in the region, no doubt due to the similarities seen in 2012, no increased instability, whether in Mali nor the greater Sahel region, has happened so far.

The legal debate around the position of civilians in the combatant landscape can both have consequences for the rights of the individuals in question, and also for the legitimacy of the intervention by Western forces in the Sahel.