Counterinsurgency in West Africa

Among the most challenging issues of West Africa, is its security. This region had experienced and is still experiencing many insurgencies. The Senegalese Armed Forces had been containing the insurgents in Senegal's southern Casamance region for more than twenty years. They have conducted many successful military operations against the rebels but still now the region is not completely secured. Despite this long insurgency, the Republic of Senegal seems more fortunate than some of its neighbors in West Africa, such as Liberia or Cte d'Ivoire. In these two countries, the insurgency reached such high levels that United Nations peacekeeping forces' interventions were required to avoid a general chaos in those countries. To bring back and maintain peace and stability, these countries, have unsuccessfully tried predominantly a military lethal approach. They have also experienced numerous political negotiations, helped by neighboring countries, West Africa's sub-regional organization known as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN). This thesis explores some non-lethal Lines of operations within a coherent counterinsurgency strategy.