JIDELFA

The Sahel accounted for 51% of global terror-related deaths in 2024, with over 1,900 civilians killed across West Africa between January and November 2025. JIDELFA works with national actors, regional bodies, and communities through structured dialogue, early-warning monitoring, and support for ceasefires, disarmament processes, and post-conflict reconstruction in fragile and conflict-affected states.

The withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from ECOWAS in January 2025 exposed deep fractures in West Africa's regional governance architecture. JIDELFA works to strengthen the mandates, credibility, and operational capacity of the African Union, ECOWAS, and UN Security Council mechanisms, helping institutions adapt to shifting political realities, renewed sovereignty assertions, and competing external influences.

Across the AES states and the broader Sahel, security forces face legitimacy crises rooted in impunity, ethnic profiling, and political manipulation. JIDELFA supports evidence-based reform processes that improve civilian oversight, strengthen accountability frameworks, and rebuild public trust in military and police institutions, particularly in states transitioning from authoritarian rule or emerging from conflict.

With 12.1 million people in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin requiring urgent humanitarian assistance in 2026, the protection of civilians remains central to JIDELFA's mission. Our work addresses forced displacement, conflict-related sexual violence, child soldier recruitment, and access to justice for communities affected by both state and non-state armed actor violence, placing human dignity at the core of every policy engagement.

JIDELFA produces timely, field-informed analysis on armed group dynamics, governance failures, and diplomatic openings across West and Central Africa. Our research informs practitioner decision-making, feeds into multilateral policy processes, and provides independent analysis in debates too often shaped by external actors with competing geopolitical interests and insufficient ground-level knowledge.