These depictions of Niger, Sudan and other African states as mere backdrops to geopolitical conflicts between distant outsiders frequently neglect the role played by regional institutions, neighboring states and nonstate actors, portraying them as secondary players if at all. Elsewhere in Africa, the jockeying for position among regional states around conflicts in eastern Congo and Sudan have had more far-reaching impacts on escalation dynamics than any U.S. diplomatic initiative or Russian arms shipments. Interpreting every geopolitical crisis in the context of great power conflict often distracts from wider regional trends that will ultimately have a global impact of their own. The rapidly deteriorating security situation across West Africa is a case in point. Paris’ effort to maintain a neo-imperial sphere of influence in partnership with regional autocrats has certainly played a crucial role in generating social instability.

Source: The North Africa Journal September 06, 2023 13:05 UTC