On November 16-18, SIPRI organized a regional dialogue meeting in Bamako, Mali on the future of peace operations and conflict management in Northern Africa. This was the fifth and final regional meeting in the series organized within the project New Geopolitics of Peace Operations II: African Outlooks on Conflict Management. The project aims to better understand how to prepare peace operations for the diverse security environments in Africa, while promoting local and international dialogue on the future of peace and security.
The meeting, organized in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, brought together a range of leading experts, military and government officials and representatives of international organizations to discuss how to improve the response to security challenges in the region.
On the third day of the regional dialogue participants were invited to join a high level event that focused on a critical assessment of the role that external actors, particularly the United Nations, play in the Malian crisis. Distinguished panellists included Moussa Mara and Soumana Sacko, former prime ministers of Mali, AU high representative Pierre Buyoya and President of the ECOWAS Commission to Mali Aboudou Chéaka Touré.
In March 2016 the project will hold a global dialogue meeting in Brussels, Belgium where international and African stakeholders will discuss how to improve cooperation on peace operations in Africa.
For more information, please see the project webpage or contact:
Jair van der Lijn, Senior Researcher
Xenia Avezov, Researcher
Timo Smit, Research Assistant