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Sahel Research Group

Publications

Publications

Below you will find a selection of books, journal articles and other publications published by the Sahel Research Group.

Books
Articles and book chapters
Other publications

Books

YearTitle
Roads and Conflicts in North and West Africa
edited by Marie Trémolières, Olivier J. Walther and Steven M. Radil
OECD Publishing, 2025.
Ecole, religion et république au Sahel
by Leonardo A. Villalón, Mamadou Bodian and Abdourahmane Idrissa
L'Harmattan, 2025.
2023Urbanisation and Conflicts in North and West Africa
edited by Marie Trémolières, Olivier J. Walther and Steven M. Radil
OECD Publishing, 2023.
2022Borders and Conflicts in North and West Africa
edited by Marie Trémolières, Olivier J. Walther and Steven M. Radil
OECD Publishing, 2022.
2021The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel
edited by Leonardo A. Villalón
Oxford University Press, 2021.
2021Salafism and Political Order in Africa
by Sebastian Elischer
Cambridge University Press, 2021.
2021Conflict Networks in North and West Africa
edited by Marie Trémolières, Olivier J. Walther and Steven M. Radil
OECD Publishing, 2021.
2021L’analyse du risque politique
edited by Adib Bencherif and Frédéric Mérand
PUM, 2021.
2020
Entre le Savoir et le Culte: Activisme et mouvements religieux dans les universités du Sahel
edited by Leonardo Villalón and Mamadou Bodian
Amalion Publishing, 2020.
2020book coverDemocratic Struggle, Institutional Reform and State Resilience in The African Sahel
edited by Leonardo A. Villalón and Rahmane Idrissa
Lexington Books, 2020.
2020The Geography of Conflict in North and West Africa
edited by Marie Trémolières, Olivier J. Walther and Steven M. Radil
OECD Publishing, 2020.
2018African Border Disorders. Addressing Transnational Extremist Organizations
edited by Olivier J. Walther and William F.S. Miles
Routledge, 2018.
2016Muslim Youth and the 9/11 Generation
edited by Benjamin Soares and Adeline Masquelier
University of New Mexico Press & SAR Press, 2016.
2013Political Parties in Africa. Ethnicity and Party Formation
by Sebastian Elischer
Cambridge University Press, 2013.
2013African Migrations: Patterns and Perspectives
edited by Abdoulaye Kane and Todd H. Leedy
Indiana University Press, 2013.
2012Medicine, Mobility, and Power in Global Africa: Transnational Health and Healing
edited by Hansjörg Dilger, Abdoulaye Kane and Stacey A. Langwick
Indiana University Press, 2012.
2009The Languages of Urban Africa
edited by Fiona Mc Laughlin
A&C Black, 2009.
1995Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal
by Leonardo A. Villalón
Cambridge University Press, 1995.
2005
The Fate of Africa’s Democratic Experiments: Elites and Institutions
edited by Leonardo A. Villalón and Peter Von Doepp
Indiana University Press, 2005.

Articles and book chapters

2026| 2025 |2024 |2023 |2022 |2021 |2020 |2019 |2018 |2007-2016

2026

  • Villalón L. 2026. The Long and Winding Road to a Dead End?: Three-plus Decades of Democratic Work in Niger. In: Scarnecchia T and Tornimbeni C (eds), Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2000-2025: A Political Historical Reassessment, Boydell & Brewer, 93–116.
  • Fall M. 2026. Embodied religiosity: Religious practices among the Baye Fall. Journal of Religion in Africa 1, 1-37.
  • Kane A. 2026. Circuits and movement in religious transnationalism: a Tijani community between Mbour (Senegal), Fez (Morocco) and Mantes-la-Jolie (France). Canadian Journal of African Studies, 1-20.
  • Elischer S. 2026. Towards praetorian-led electoral authoritarianism? Examining the post-coup transitions in francophone Africa. Democratization: 1–24.

2025

  • Adou B. 2025. Mauritania’s Chairmanship of the African Union. Yearbook on the African Union 5: 61–76.
  • Serra R, McKune S, Ludgate N, Singh N, Devkota K, Fall M, Obin G, Russo S. 2025. Intersectionality Matters: An Analysis of Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Settings. World Development 189: 107212.
  • Walther O, Harris-Coble L, Brottem L, de Bruijn M, van Dijk H, Nwankwo C.F, Adesogan AT. 2025. Pastoralism is facing existential threat in West Africa. Political Geography 121: 103363.
  • Adou B. 2025. Islam and the struggle for national identity in Mauritania: Mediating Arabo-African divides? Souffles Monde 4.
  • Adou B. 2025. Mauritania. In Africa Yearbook. Leiden, Brill: 141-148.
  • Walther O, Radil S, Russell D. 2025. The spatial conflict life cycle in Africa. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 115(2): 456-477.
  • Walther O, Radil S, Thurston A. 2025. Political violence and transport infrastructure in West Africa. African Security Review, 1-15.
  • Serra R, et al. 2025. Intersectionality matters: An analysis of women’s empowerment among livestock holders in Nepal, Senegal and Uganda. World Development 191.
  • Walther O, Nugent P, Goewey S. 2025. The impact of transport policies on road accessibility in Ghana (2010-2019). African Geographical Review 44(1): 1-17.

2024

  • Acosta D, Barrow A, Mahamadou IS, Assuncao VS, Edwards M, McKune S. 2024. Climate Change and Health in the Sahel: A Systematic Review. Royal Society Open Science 11: 231602.
  • Ernyey H, Tiwari C, Stark H, N’Diaye Wereme A, Zare Y, Omer A, McKune S. 2024. Effect of egg consumption on early childhood development: Evidence from Un Oeuf study. Public Health Nutrition 27: e257.
  • Adou, B. 2024. Mauritania. In Africa Yearbook. Leiden, Brill: 144-151
  • Adou, B. 2024. Racializing Arabic: Colonial education policies and the linguistic issue in contemporary Mauritania. POMEPS Studies 52: 7-11
  • Acosta, D. et al. 2024. Climate change and health in the Sahel: a systematic review. Royal Society Open Science 11(7).
  • Elischer, S. 2024.  Weapons of the weak: How African states counteract homegrown Jihadi Salafism. Journal of Global Security Studies 9(3).
  • Elischer S, Hoyle J. 2024. Electoral contests in the aftermath of military coups: how domestic constraints motivate praetorian conduct. Contemporary Politics 30(1): 44-64.

2023

  • Prieto Curiel R, Walther O, Davies E. 2023. Detecting trends and shocks in terrorist activities. PLoS ONE 18(9).
  • Radil S, Walther O, Dorward N, Pflaum M. 2023. Urban-rural geographies of political violence in North and West Africa. Africa Security 16(2-3): 199-222.
  • Adou B. 2023. Mauritania. In Africa Yearbook. Leiden, Brill: 136-143.
  • Villalón L. 2023. The Politics of Democratization and the State of the State in the Sahel. In Harbeson J. (ed.) Africa in World Politics: Sustaining Reform in a Turbulent World Order. New York: Routledge (chapter 10).
  • Walther O, Radil S, Russell D, Trémolières M. 2023. Introducing the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator of political violence. Terrorism and Political Violence 35(3): 533-552.

2022

  • Villalón L. 2022. The political roots of fragility in the G5 Sahel countries: State institutions and the politics of democracy and security. In Carbone G, Casola C (eds) 10 years of Instability in the Sahel. Regional Dynamics and External Interventions. Milan: ISPI.
  • Moore E, Singh N, Serra R, McKune S. 2022. Household decision-making, women’s empowerment, and increasing egg consumption in children under five in rural Burkina Faso: Observations from a cluster randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 6: 1034618.
  • Villalón L, Branco da Silva I. 2022. Reflections on research ethics in complex contexts: Navigating politics, pragmatics, and positionality. In Freire F (ed.) State, Society and Islam in the Western Regions of the Sahara. London: I. B. Tauris.
  • Mc Laughlin F.  2022. Senegal: Urban Wolof then and now.  In Kerswill P, Wiese H. (eds)  Urban Contact Dialects and Language Change: Insights from the Global North and South.  New York, Routledge.
  • McOmber C, McNamara K, McKune S. 2022. Community concept drawing: A participatory visual method for incorporating local knowledge into conceptualization. Field Methods 34(2): 163–180.
  • Serra R, Ludgate N, Fiorillo Dowhaniuk K, McKune SL, Russo S. 2022. Beyond the gender of the livestock holder: Learnings from intersectional analyses of PPR vaccine value chains in Nepal, Senegal, and Uganda. Animals 12(3): 241.
  • Elischer S, Lawrance BN. 2022. Reassessing Africa’s new post-coup landscape. African Studies Review, 65(1): 7.
  • Radil S, Irmisher I, Walther O. 2022. Contextualizing the relationship between borderlands and political violence: A dynamic space-time analysis in West and North Africa. Journal of Borderlands Studies 37(2): 253-271.
  • Walther O. 2022. Trade and security in African borderlands – An introduction. Journal of Borderlands Studies 37(2): 229-234.

2021

  • Walther O, Radil S, Russell D. 2021. Mapping the changing structure of conflict in North and West Africa. African Security 14(3): 211-238.
  • Skillicorn D, Walther O, Leuprecht C. Zheng Q. 2021. The diffusion and permeability of political violence in North and West Africa. Terrorism and Political Violence 33(5): 1032-1054.
  • Sow A. 2021. Military parade in Mali: Understanding Malian politics through spectacle. The Journal of Modern African Studies 58(2): 219-235.
  • Madore F. 2021. ‘Good Muslim, bad Muslim’ in Togo: religious minority identity construction amid a sociopolitical crisis (2017–2018). The Journal of Modern African Studies 59(2): 197-217.
  • McKune S, Serra R, Touré A. 2021. Gender and intersectional analysis of livestock vaccine value chains in Kaffrine, Senegal. PLoS ONE 16(7): e0252045.
  • McOmber C, McNamara, K, Ryley T, McKune S. 2021. Investigating the Conceptual Plurality of Empowerment in Food Security Research. Sustainability 13(6): 3166.
  • Stark H, Omer A, Wereme N’Diaye A, Sapp AC, Moore EV, McKune SL. 2021. The Un Oeuf study: Design, methods and baseline data from a cluster randomised controlled trial to increase child egg consumption in Burkina Faso. Maternal & Child Nutrition 17(1), e13069.

2020

  • McKune, S., Lane, J., Austin-Datta, R., Ouma, E., Flax, V., Williams, R., Moore, E., Jacobs, M., and Turk, J. (2020). Increasing animal source food consumption: Recommendations for making livestock research and programming more nutrition sensitive. Global Food Security 26, 100430.
  • McKune S. Stark H, Sapp A, Yang Y, Slanzi C, Moore C, Omer A, Wereme N’Diaye, A. 2020. Behavior change, egg consumption, and child nutrition: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics 146 (6): e2020007930.
  • Bencherif A, Vlavonou G. 2020. Reflexive tension: An auto-ethnographic journey through international relations discipline in Western academic training. African Identities: 1-20.
  • Bencherif A. et al. 2020. Lethal violence in civil war: Trends and micro-dynamics of violence in the Northern Mali conflict (2012-2015). Studies in Conflict & Terrorism: 1-23.
  • Madore F. 2020. Francophone Muslim intellectuals, Islamic associational life and religious authority in Burkina Faso. Africa 90(3): 625–646.
  • Madore F. 2020. Imams, Islamic preachers, and public space in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) since the 1990s: Toward new intergenerational relationships and a Muslim public sphere. In Acquah LJ, Falola T. (eds) Perspectives on the Religious Landscape in Africa. Durham: Carolina Academic Press: 183–213.
  • Prieto Curiel R, Walther O, O’Clery C. 2020. Uncovering the internal structure of Boko Haram through its mobility patterns. Applied Network Science 5(28): 1-23.
  • Valerio V, Walther O, Eilittä M, Cissé B, Muneepeerakul R, Kiker G. 2020. Network analysis of regional livestock trade in West Africa. PLOS ONE 15(5): 1-15.
  • Bencherif A. 2020. From resilience to fragmentation: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Jihadist group modularity. Terrorism and Political Violence 32(1): 100-118.
  • Walther O, Leuprecht C, Skillicorn D. 2020. Political fragmentation and alliances among armed non-state actors in North and Western Africa (1997-2014). Terrorism and Political Violence 32(1): 167-186.

Other Publications

  • Adou B. 2025. Burkinabè trust the police despite concerns about corruption, misconduct, and insecurity. Afrobarometer Dispatch 1015.
  • Harris-Coble L, Walther O. 2025. The resilience of agricultural trade networks in West Africa. OECD West African Papers 50.
  • Radil S, Walther O. 2024. Identifying local conflict trends in North and West Africa. OECD West African Papers 42.
  • Walther O, Russell D. 2024. The fragmentation of conflict networks in North and West Africa. OECD West African Papers 41.
  • Elischer S. 2022. Populist civil society, the Wagner Group, and post-coup politics in Mali. OECD West African Papers 36.
  • Walther O. 2021. Urbanisation and Demography in North and West Africa, 1950-2020. OECD West African Papers 33.
  • Pflaum M. 2021. Pastoralist Violence in North and West Africa. OECD West African Papers 31.
  • Walther O. 2020. Femmes et conflicts en Afrique de l’Ouest. OECD West African Papers 28.
  • Walther O. 2019. Frontières, sécurité et développement en Afrique de l’Ouest. OECD West African Papers 26.
  • Eizenga D. 2019. Long Term Trends across Security and Development in the Sahel. Paris, OECD West African Papers 25.
  • Trémolières M, Walther O. 2019. Accessibility and infrastructure in border cities. OECD West African Papers 23.
  • Trémolières M, Walther O. 2019. Business and health in border cities. OECD West African Papers 22.
  • Trémolières M, Walther O. 2019. Population and morphology of border cities. OECD West African Papers 21.
  • Trémolières M, Walther O. 2019. Regional integration in border cities. OECD West African Papers 20.
  • Elischer S. 2019. Contemporary Civil-Military Relations in the Sahel. Paris, OECD West African Papers 19.
  • Ibrahim Yahaya I, Zapata M. 2018. Preventing Mass Atrocities in Mali. Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide.
  • Eizenga D. 2018. The Unstable Foundations of Political Stability in Chad. Paris, OECD West African Papers 12.
  • Elischer S. 2018. Defying the Odds? Nigerien Responses to Foreign and Domestic Security Challenges. Paris, OECD West African Papers 11.
  • Walther O. 2017. Wars and Conflicts in the Sahara-Sahel. Paris, OECD West African Papers 10.
  • Ibrahim Yahaya I. 2017. The Wave of Jihadist Insurgency in West Africa: Global Ideology, Local Context, Individual Motivations. Paris, OECD West African Papers 7.
  • Walther O. 2017. Cross-border Co-operation Networks in West Africa. Paris, OECD West African Papers 6.
  • Serra R, McKune S. 2016. Climate information services and behavioral change: The case of Senegal. SRG Working Paper 10.
  • Sambe B. 2014. Le Sénégal à l’Epreuve de la Crise Sahélienne. SRG Working Paper 9.
  • Idrissa A. 2014. In a Neighborhood on Fire: ‘Security Governance’ in Niger. SRG Working Paper 8.
  • Ba O. 2014. Tuareg Nationalism and Cyclical Pattern of Rebellions. SRG Working Paper 7.
  • Gondeu L. 2013. Notes on the Political Sociology of Chad. The Dynamics of National Integration. SRG Working Paper 6.
  • Bodian M. 2014. The Stakes of Malian Crisis in Senegal. SRG Working Paper 5.
  • Yahaya Ibrahim I. 2014. Niger in the face of Sahelo-Saharan Islamic Insurgency: Precarious Stability in a Troubled Neighborhood. SRG Working Paper 4.
  • Yahaya Ibrahim I. 2014. Managing the Sahelo-Saharan Islamic Insurgency in Mauritania. SRG Working Paper 3.
  • Eizenga D. 2013. Negotiating Stability during Times of Change: The Stakes of the Malian Crisis in Burkina Faso. SRG Working Paper 2.
  • Eizenga D. 2013. Managing Stability through Military and International Acclaim: The Stakes of the Malian Crisis in Chad. SRG Working Paper 1.