The Sahara and Sahel after Gaddhafi
Notes internacionals CIDOB, núm. 44
By redrawing the geostrategic map of the Maghreb and Sahel, Gaddhafi's fall and elimination has disrupted old strategic balances, caused a psychological shock to numerous communities who are faithful to the Libyan leader, and generated socio-economic repercussions that are being harshly felt.
The power vacuum at the core of the old geopolitical structure has direct consequences on the Sahel as a whole, and both domestically and transnationally as well. The region, already afflicted by a number of security challenges such as drug, arms or human trafficking, and the intensification of uprisings and terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), now faces unexpected risks emerging from the Libyan crisis, notably in the border regions of the Saharo-Sahelian countries.
Those risks relate to the following three areas of concern:
- Social and economic issues that generate tensions among local communities;
- The militarisation and the increasing power of militant islamism;
- The existence of potentially destabilising loyalist and/or irredentist elements
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