On July 8, 2020, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire (also known as the Ivory Coast) announced the death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who was the favorite to succeed President Alassane Ouattara in the elections scheduled for October 2020. Coulibaly’s sudden death marks a major turning point in the political landscape of West Africa’s economic and strategic hub, and calls for an assessment of the political horizon in Côte d’Ivoire in the run-up to the presidential elections.
Despite France’s many military counter-terrorism initiatives in the African Sahel, terrorist attacks and the influence of terrorist groups continue to rise. On March 27, 2020, nearly two months after the heads of State of France and the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) assembled at the Pau Summit to address this ongoing challenge, 13 States announced their support for the creation of a special European military force to support counter‑terrorism operations in the region. This has raised many questions about the drivers, opportunities, and challenges involved in the new French strategy.
The large-scale spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa raises numerous concerns about the extent of readiness of its countries in countering the epidemic and the nature and magnitude of the losses they sustain. These concerns get even worse in view of the challenges faced by the continent on all fronts, particularly with regard to the continent’s poor health system and the possible consequences of failure to counter the pandemic. This maximizes the continent’s political, economic, security and social costs in a manner that would adversely reflect on the future of the African continent and its relationship with the outside world going forward.
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