The Sahara and Sahel after Gaddhafi
![Nota Internacional CIDOB 44](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_150/public/2024-07/notes_internacionals_44_1.jpg.webp?itok=pcpikvOS)
Notes internacionals CIDOB, núm. 44
By redrawing the geostrategic map of the Maghreb and Sahel, Gaddhafi's fall and elimination has disrupted old strategic balances, caused a psychological shock to numerous communities who are faithful to the Libyan leader, and generated socio-economic repercussions that are being harshly felt.
The power vacuum at the core of the old geopolitical structure has direct consequences on the Sahel as a whole, and both domestically and transnationally as well. The region, already afflicted by a number of security challenges such as drug, arms or human trafficking, and the intensification of uprisings and terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), now faces unexpected risks emerging from the Libyan crisis, notably in the border regions of the Saharo-Sahelian countries.
Those risks relate to the following three areas of concern:
- Social and economic issues that generate tensions among local communities;
- The militarisation and the increasing power of militant islamism;
- The existence of potentially destabilising loyalist and/or irredentist elements
(...)