The Emerging Research on International Security (ERIS) team at the Sant’Anna School is very happy to announce its next initiative focused on the discussion of the many developments happening in the Sahel region.

The event, “The Sahel in turmoil: Conflict drivers and responses”, will take place on 16 May from 14.00 till evening in aula 3 at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. The event will not be hybrid. All are welcome to join in presence!

The Sant’Anna School has devoted a growing attention to the region, through the activities of the ERIS research group, the engagement of the interdisciplinary programme AfricaConnect, the trainings delivered to national and international organizations dealing with the Sahel, as well as joint teaching and exchange programmes with Sahel-based research centres. As a result of these activities, today the Sant’Anna School represents a hub of expertise on the region, its dynamics of (in-)security, and their implications for global governance and the promotion of human rights in fragile settings.

Building on this background, the Sant’Anna School intends to provide a space for discussion and dissemination of the results so far achieved, the questions that remain unanswered, and the future goals of its research activities. Leveraging the competences of the ERIS group researchers, the workshop “The Sahel in Turmoil: conflict drivers and responses” aims to address the Sant’Anna School’s students and the overall academic community to discuss the main drivers of and responses to the conflict dynamics currently affecting the Sahel, with particular reference to the issues of violent extremism and its countering measures at international, regional and local level. Through the contributions of researchers from different backgrounds, the workshop’s goal is to provide a chance of mutual learning and sharing of research findings, so as to ignite a discussion with students of all levels. It will also provide the opportunity for the first preview presentation of the freshly published volume Jihad in Africa. Terrorismo e Controterrorismo in Sahel (Mulino, 2022), co-edited by the Sant’Anna School researchers Edoardo Baldaro and Luca Raineri.

The workshop is part of the AfricaConnect programme. Presentations will be held in English and in French.

            Programme of the workshop

14.15 Introduction

14.30 Responding to jihadism in the Sahel: international, regional and local approaches

Chair: Edoardo Baldaro

  • Francesco Strazzari, Recipes for failure? Mapping the responses to conflict and violent extremism in the Sahel
  • Aichatou Adamou Maiga, L'insécurité au Sahel et réponses régionales: entre espoirs et incertitudes
  • Delina Goxho, Light footprint – heavily destabilizing impact: why the Western understanding of remote warfare needs to be reconsidered

16.00 Break

16.15 Armed conflict and extremism: the drivers of violence in the Sahel

Chair: Luca Raineri

  • Laura Berlingozzi, Women mobilisation and jihadi governance in the Sahel
  • Amadou Limam Boukari, La région du Liptako-Gourma: aux origines de l’insécurité transfrontalière
  • Francesca Lenzi e Adele Moltedo, Climate change and natural resource conflicts: a fertile ground for terrorism?

17.45 Break

18.00 Book presentation: Jihad in Africa. Terrorismo e Controterrorismo in Sahel By Edoardo Baldaro and Luca Raineri

Introduces: Francesco Strazzari

19.00 Cocktail

20.00 Movie screening