Armed Groups in the Sahel
As my last week in D.C. is nearing, I decided to get a boating education certificate, so that I can rent a boat in various states and countries. My after-work hours have thus been spent learning about different lights, buoys, and currents to prepare for the final exam. I now know different mnemonics such as “Red, Right, Returning” to always remember which buoy to follow to enter a channel from the open sea.
Meanwhile, I’ve also been trying to finalize the planning of my trip to Turkey and Lebanon. My friends and I have finally agreed on a two-week trip, starting with Istanbul, Pamukkale, and Cesme, before going to Beirut for a few days. We’re also thinking about going outside Beirut for the day to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Byblos and the ancient ruins of Baalbek.
On another note, my work at USIP has also been exhilarating. I’ve been doing more and more research on extremist groups in Mali and Niger, which has proven to be an incredibly hard task given the sheer number of groups and name changes. In Mali alone, over twenty armed groups have formed in the country since the conflict started. In Niger, I have been trying to gather as much information as possible on the rising number of armed groups, but it has proven much harder to do so than for Mali.