About the authors

Dr. Kars de Bruijne is the Head of the Sahel Program and a Senior Research Fellow with the Clingendael’s Conflict Research Unit. He concentrates on West Africa’s coastal states.

James Courtright is a researcher at Clingendael’s Conflict Research Unit interested in the political economy of natural resource management and conflict dynamics in the Sahel and savannah regions of West Africa.

Dr. David Suaka Yaro is a distinguished senior lecturer and coordinator of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Navrongo, Ghana.

Grace Ellis is a researcher at Clingendael’s Conflict Research Unit focusing on governance, social vulnerabilities, and the intricate relationships between state and non-state actors in the Sahel region.

Paul Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah is the team lead for security sector governance at the Center of Democratic Development in Ghana.

Mathias Khalfaoui is an independent consultant working on issues related to insecurity and development in West Africa, with a keen interest in coastal countries.

Eliasu Tanko is an independent consultant working on issues related to insecurity and development in West Africa, with a keen interest in coastal countries.

Photo credits

© REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko. National security members patrol near a polling station during Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary elections in Kyebi, Ghana. December 7, 2020.