African Networks Lab

By Olivier Walther. 1/30/2024, updated 2/2/2024, 1/31/2025. On January 28, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announced their unilateral decision to withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc founded in 1975. ECOWAS is one of eight regional economic communities recognized by the African Union to foster regional integration on the […]

Read more "Leaving ECOWAS could have catastrophic consequences for the Sahel"

Olivier J. Walther and David G. Russell will chair a paper session at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, April 20, 2024, from 3:00-4:20 PM in room 302B (Makiki), Third Floor, Hawai’i Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawai’i. Abstract Africa has, in recent decades, experienced a growing number of conflicts that are challenging to monitor […]

Read more "The Geography of Armed Conflicts in Africa, AAG 2024"

As ECOWAS prepares for a military intervention, a conflict between Niger and Nigeria could threaten the deep social and economic ties developed on both sides of the border. Hausaland divided ‘The people of Niger Republic are one and the same with those living in Northern Nigeria’, wrote former Kaduna State Governor Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufai recently. […]

Read more "War could ruin decades of regional integration in Hausaland"

In a new paper published in The Professional Geographer this week, we model the geography of the 9/11 network members’ many travels from the moment the hijackers first boarded a plane to the United States until they killed 2,977 people on 11 September 2001. Building on publicly available sources, and for the first time in […]

Read more "Mapping the travel geography of the 9/11 network"

Livestock trade is an important economic activity in West Africa, a region where approximately half of the population owns livestock. Long distance and cross-border travel is often involved in both the production and trade of livestock, particularly cattle and small ruminants. As discussed at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in Denver in […]

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Conflicts in the Sahel region are intensifying, causing adverse effects on local communities. To better understand the localized impacts of violence, we analyzed primary survey data collected from three regions in Mali in collaboration with the NGO Voice 4 Thought alongside conflict data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). In general, […]

Read more "Assessing vulnerability to political violence in Mali"

Road improvement projects have led to improving accessibility in Ghana in the last decade. Yet, we show in a new paper published this week in African Geographical Review with Dr. Paul Nugent and Ms. Susanna Goewey that accessibility gains remain very unevenly distributed across the country. As Ghana becomes increasingly urbanized, regional disparities tend to […]

Read more "Accessibility disparities grow as Ghana urbanizes"

Armed groups in northwest Africa have “gone rural” in the past few years, according to a new OECD report released this week based on our work in northwest Africa. Using disaggregated data from ACLED, WorldPop and Africapolis, the report examines whether violence display an urban character, how urban and rural violence have changed over time, […]

Read more "The ruralization of conflicts in North and West Africa"

Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) 3rd World Conference, 13-18 February 2023, Ben-Gurion University, Eilat Campus, Israel Session Borders, Cities and Conflicts Organizers Olivier J. Walther, University of Florida; Steven M. Radil, U.S. Air Force Academy Session description Cities and borders have long been synonymous with warfare, insurgency, and the many other forms of politically motivated […]

Read more "Call for Papers – 2023 ABS World Conference"

Conflicts in North and West Africa are increasingly transnational, making borders, borderlands, and border communities ever more important for the stability of the state. Building on a disaggregated analysis of more than 171 000 violent events collected by ACLED, our Lab examined the increasing importance of border regions in the development of armed conflicts in the […]

Read more "How borders shape political violence in Africa"