WEBINAR | The impact of terrorism issues on development, particularly on mining investments in the Sahel and Lake Chad region | Date: February 21, 2024 / Time: 1 – 2 pm (ET)
REGISTRATION: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9IBo_2AjR76wU2k0t_cDuw
Tête-à-tête with Seidik Abba, Journalist and writer, President of the Centre international d’études et de réflexion sur le Sahel
From UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s recent January 2025 remarks to the UN Security Council on the global evolution and consequences of the nature of the terrorist threat and security crisis in Africa, ”the epicenter of terrorism has shifted from the Middle East and North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa, concentrating primarily in the Sahel region”. This ASG session is designed to provide a better understanding of the origins of the current terrorist threat in the central Sahel and the Lake Chad basin, the underlying reasons for its rapid spread within Sahelian countries (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad), and the risks of its extension to the Gulf of Guinea states (Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Togo). Dr. Seidik Abba outlines the multi-dimensional negative consequences on development, particularly on mining investments, which account for a solid proportion of the BIP of these countries. He also explores the methods and circuits used by terrorist organizations to raise funds, and the judicial limits to practices that evade conventional solutions in the fight against the financing of terrorism.
Seidik Abba is an academic and journalist. President of the Centre international de réflexion et d’études sur le Sahel (CIRES) and associate researcher at the Groupe interdisciplinaire en histoire de l’Afrique (GIRHA) at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), he has published several books, including: Voyages au Cœur de Boko Haram, Enquête sur le djihad en Afrique subsaharienne (L’Harmattan, 2019), Pour comprendre Boko Haram (L’Harmattan, 2021) and Mali/Sahel: Notre Afghanistan à nous? (Impacts Éditions, 2022. Seidik ABBA was editor-in-chief of the pan-African weekly Jeune-Afrique and Paris bureau chief of the Pan-African News Agency (PANAPRESS). A columnist and reporter for Le Monde Afrique, he regularly comments on African news on several international media, including TV5 Monde, France 24, the BBC and The Voice of America. Seidik also works on peace and security issues in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin.
MODERATOR: Dr Cheickh T. Bangoura, Former UN Director and Legal Advisor in Africa, expert in peace, security and international cooperation, President of the Africa Study Group
