This paper explores the major impediments to peace and widespread interest in Sahel violence and stability. It examines the expansion of violent extremism across the Sahel and the direct consequence of unrest across North Africa. It assesses worrisome development in the region's security landscape as these violent extremist organizations grow and develop sophisticated networks. It discovers that these emerging threats can be illustrated by the unique challenges facing Libya, Mali, Nigeria, and other countries in the region. Hence the strategies and assistance of Major Powers in ensuring the security and stability of the Sahel region, as it goes well beyond terrorism. Methodologically, it employs the use of descriptive analysis relying solely on secondary information for data generation and articulation. The study therefore suggests among others that, rather than attempt to stifle regional conflicts through military intervention, Major Powers should encourage regional initiatives. Many regional conflicts are so deeply rooted, however powers involve should recognize that, for there to be success in ending the fighting and instability, it should avoid policies that often clash with realities and needs on the ground, without which no outside party, from within or outside the region will succeed in putting an end to the threat to peace and security challenge.

The geographic area of the Sahel is of particular interest when examining regional security issues that have negatively affected political, economic and social interaction on the African continent for decades. The region has seen a massive upsurge in lethal violence, and militant groups continue to expand their activities southward, now threatening coastal West Africa. The paper examines the links between the growing dynamics of the Sahel and the security of Liptako-Gourma, composed of groups of contiguous states rooted in historical and geographical environments. The paper empirically applies the Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver’s “Regional Security Complex Theory” (RSCT) as a framework for studying the discourse of security threats and the dynamics of security challenges in the region. The application of RSCT theory makes a significant contribution to understanding these regional security issues in the Liptako-Gourma region. The complex links between threats demonstrate the likely impossibility of addressing these threats in isolation, and the need for a broader approach. The study interprets the current relationship between France and Mali in relation to Mali’s withdrawal from the G5 Sahel Force as hostile. The authors argue that the regional nature of the security threats strongly supports the claim that geographic proximity is a major contributor to security interactions. The paper also reveals that the individual security of each state cannot be separated from that of its neighbors. Therefore, it is suggested that mutual interests could contribute to a stronger regional security initiative that integrates the fight against a common threat such as terrorism.

Abstract. The paper offered a review of Africa's moral call for reparation. It emphasized among other things that the continued underdevelopment and marginalization of the African continent today, is not unconnected with the trilogy of slavery, imperialism and colonialism. From the perspective of the British expedition of the Great Benin Kingdom in 1897, the paper highlighted how the African continent had been brutalized to strengthen the economies of their colonial overlords. The paper anchored its call for reparation on the premise that, reparation is not only recognized in international law, it has been paid to countries of the world whose dehumanizing experiences are not even as pathetic as those of Africa's over 500 years of abject treatment, damages and destruction occasioned by slavery, imperialism and colonialism. It unveiled also the scholarly argument opposed to reparation.The work thus proposes that reparations from the western countries to Africa should be on cooperative and partnership basis. This should be in favour of development through deliberate international efforts in recompensing Africa for all the ills visited on her by the west.

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