Hvordan går det med problemlandet Mali?

Seminar organized by the Sahel-Maghreb Research Platform.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use our online registration form no later than Thursday 8 June at 12.00 noon. Livestream does not require registration.

Sign up

In 2012, an unstable coalition of nationalist Touareg rebels and local and transnational jihadi groups declared the state of Azawad in Northern Mali independent.

In the following months, the jihadi groups imposed themselves on the North and expanded southwards into central Mali claiming that they would conquer the capital, Bamako.

Although a French-led military intervention pushed back the jihadi expansion, Northern Mali remains one of the most dangerous places for UN peacekeepers and in the recent months central Mali has seen a steady growth in jihadi activity.

The collapse of security in Northern Mali has called for a host of well-known responses from the international community ranging from the French and the UN military interventions to the broader stabilization and development program initiated by Western donor countries.

What remains less explored, but equally important, is the range of responses to the crisis enacted by Mali’s regional neighbours in the North Africa, the Sahel and West Africa.

At this DIIS seminar organized under the Sahel-Maghreb Research Platform, four international experts will analyse how regional great powers and regional organizations have responded to the country’s successive crises.

The seminar forms part of the Sahel-Maghreb Research Platform, which is funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and hosted by DIIS with support from Voluntas Advisory. You can see the project page here.

The conference will be held in English.

Speakers

Rasmus Alenius Boserup, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Abdenour Benantar, Associate Professor, University Paris 8

Anouar Boukhars, Non-resident scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Signe Cold-Ravnkilde, Postdoc, DIIS

Peter Kolding, Senior Regional Peace and Stabilization Representative and Coordinator to the Sahel, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Luis Martinez, Senior Research Fellow, Sciences Po

Bakary Sambe, Director, Observatory on Religious Radicalism and Conflicts in Africa, Dakar

09.00-09.10

Welcome and Opening

Rasmus Alenius Boserup

09.10-09.35

The States in the Sahel and West Africa confronted with the crises in Mali

Bakary Sambe

09.35-10.00

G5 Sahel – regional solutions to regional challenges

Peter Kolding

10.00-10.10

Discussion

Signe Cold-Ravnkilde

10.10-10.40

Q&A with panellists

10.40-11.00

Coffee Break

11.00-11.25

Moroccan responses to the crises in Mali and to the expansion of jihadism in the Sahel

Anouar Boukhars

11.25-11.50

Algerian responses to the crises in Mali and to the expansion of jihadism in the Sahel

Abdenour Benantar

11.50-12.00

Discussion

Luis Martinez

12.00-12.30

Q&A with panellists

Practical information

The seminar will be conducted in English and livestreamed on www.diis.dk.