This webinar has been streamed live via YouTube.

Governance Dynamics in Northern Mali: implications for stability and the Covid-19 response

Five years have passed since the Malian Peace Agreement. At a time when American and European policymakers are re-examining their foreign policy outlook in the Sahel, where do we stand? What are the complex governance dynamics in northern Mali? And what are the implications for stability and the Covid-19 responses?

In June 2015, the government of Mali and northern armed groups signed the Algiers Peace Agreement. Five years later, Mali struggles with a broadened conflict landscape that has spread to central Mali. Governance is characterised by increasing fragmentation in which ex-rebels, community-based armed groups, radical armed forces and state security forces compete for control.

The kidnapping of opposition leader Soumaila Cissé has put a spotlight on how the country’s conflict hotspots are carved up into micro-zones of control and influence. In addition, Covid-19 adds more fluidity and complexity to an already difficult situation. While Covid-19 is not the only, and perhaps the biggest crisis in Mali, it makes a bad situation worse, and compounds existing governance and service delivery challenges.

Speakers

Clingendael’s Conflict Research Unit will bring together scholars and Sahel enthusiasts to assess and discuss governance dynamics in northern Mali.

Fransje Molenaar, moderator (Senior Research Fellow, Clingendael) will be joined by experts:

• Alex Thurston (Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati)
• Rida Lyammouri (Research Associate, Clingendael and Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South)
• Anna Schmauder (Junior Researcher, Clingendael)
• Loic Bisson (Junior Researcher, Clingendael)