Tag: Violence

Addressing the Political Impasse in Togo: Response from ECOWAS in Preventing Violent Armed Conflict

Addressing the Political Impasse in Togo: Response from ECOWAS in Preventing Violent Armed Conflict

Posted by | Jul 18, 2025 |

Africa faces a range of complex issues related to maintaining and advancing democratic stability. In this paper, we examine Togo, with a specific focus on the political impasses that could hinder the democratic development of the small West African coastal state in the face of threats such as violent extremism and terrorism. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) tried to address the situation in Togo, primarily by intensifying its diplomatic efforts to prevent the region from becoming a hub for military juntas. As a result, the paper examines the measures involved in implementing prevention measures against the political impasse in Togo. It does so by analysing the sources of Togo’s political impasse and takes into consideration ECOWAS’s attempt to resolve and prevent conflict. The study concludes that diplomatic strategies ought to be employed by ECOWAS to address the identified political challenges effectively. In addition, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) should not only be vibrant but also work to identify gaps in the political situation and encourage people to understand that this does not call for violence. Furthermore, ECOWAS should review its Protocol on Good Governance to effectively address the issue of the third-term syndrome. ECOWAS should condemn coups, implement sanctions to encourage the leader to accept multi-party democracy, be vocal in denouncing poor governance, and engage the current leader to step down. In addition, the CSOs should be given the freedom to speak freely and demonstrate against bad governance in Togo. This means that all actors and stakeholders will be able to reach a peaceful agreement, promote good democratic values and human rights, enable multi-party participation in the country, promote participation in decision making, create an enabling environment for CSOs to operate without fear of intimidation, and build resilient and independent state institutions.

Read More
Questioning Separatism in a Context of Democratic Development: The Polisario and the Ambazonian Movement in the Face of Today’s New Geopolitical Challenges

Questioning Separatism in a Context of Democratic Development: The Polisario and the Ambazonian Movement in the Face of Today’s New Geopolitical Challenges

Posted by | Aug 22, 2024 |

Several African states are currently being rocked by separatist or autonomist movements seeking to create independent micro-states within recognised sovereign states. These include the Movement for self-determination of Kabylie (MAK) in Algeria, the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda in Angola, the Ogaden National Liberation Front or the Tigray Liberation Movement in Ethiopia, the National Liberation Movement of Azawad (NLMA) in Mali, the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance in Senegal and so on. While some of these movements date back to the post-independence era, others are more recent, albeit fuelled by distant causes. An example of this is Morocco, a North African country and a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union, which faces separatism and regular harassment from Polisario, a movement that has been advocating the creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic since 1976. A similar case study is English-speaking Cameroon, where various armed groups are calling for the creation of Ambazonia. While it is true that separatism is partly justified by the various frustrations of a population, it is also true that it represents a major risk to the stability of states. Given the current context and the issues at stake, it is almost impossible to give separatism any support. Repeated violations of human rights (rape, sexual abuse, looting, etc.), large-scale atrocities, massive destruction, violence, etc. are comparable to the methods of terrorists, and constitute a serious threat to sub-regional, regional and international peace and stability. This work is the result of the analysis of the archival, documentary and oral data collected and supplemented by neutral direct observation in the field. At the end of this reflection, four observations can be made about the Polisario and the independent movement of Ambazonia: The Polisario and the independent movement of Ambazonia have the same objective (independence); the same method of recruiting fighters (forced or voluntary recruitment among unemployed young people); the same modus operandi (use of violence), and the same approach (seeking external support to better influence geopolitical issues).

Read More
The Boko Haram Insurgency and the Festering Human Insecurity in North-East Nigeria

The Boko Haram Insurgency and the Festering Human Insecurity in North-East Nigeria

Posted by | Sep 28, 2021 |

The study establishes a nexus between Boko Haram insurgency and human insecurity in the north-east of Nigeria. Anchoring on the concept of human security, the study adopt qualitative method of data collection and analysis which relied heavily on extant literature from journal articles, official documents, workshop and seminar papers, newspapers, magazines and internet
sources. The study argues that though human insecurity is a major driver of the Boko Haram insurgency. The lethal and destructive activities of its actors have heightened and widened the spate of human insecurity amid debilitating food insecurity, physical harm, internal displacements and hemorrhaging refugee syndrome. The study concludes that military combat alone cannot tame the Boko Haram insurgency and thus recommends that, the government should adopt credible measures to address the human security challenges as an effective and functional counter-insurgency strategy.

Read More