Exhibition: Lived realities on the frontlines of the Sahel
ENTER THE EXHIBITION HERE
For more than a decade, large parts of the Sahel have been gripped by jihadist insurgencies and a marked escalation of violence from both armed groups and states.
As a result, the region has been deeply transformed. Damage inflicted on institutions, infrastructure, and systems of governance is considerable. But it is ordinary people living near the frontlines who carry the heaviest burden.
Many have lost their livelihoods, their sense of safety, their homes – and have been forced to move, whether within their own countries or across borders. Others had no means or opportunity to leave. They stayed, learning to live with insecurity and violence as facts of daily life.
This online exhibition presents photographs of internally displaced people in Mali taken by photographer Moussa John Kalapo. The photos are taken in 2022 and 2023. His images are rooted in the everyday, showing how communities adapt, endure, and carry on in the face of prolonged disruption. Rather than looking at conflict from a distance, the exhibition brings you closer to the people living through it.
The exhibition also features short videos in which young people from conflict-affected areas of Nigeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso speak for themselves. Many have experienced violence and displacement, sometimes right on their doorstep. All were around 20 years old when the videos were recorded in late 2022. They have lost homes, livelihoods, and sometimes the communities that once held them together. Their futures remain uncertain. Yet they do not only speak of loss; they put forward concrete ideas and recommendations to those with the power to make change.
The exhibition is part of the research project Jihadist Governance in the Sahel (JIGOV), led by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), together with the Senegalese institute ARDOA, the University of Oxford, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Nigeria, and the African Security Sector Network (ASSN). JIGOV is funded by the Research Council of Norway.
FACTS
The Sahel is a dry savanna region south of the Sahara Desert. It stretches across the African continent from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, forming a belt ranging from a few hundred to a thousand kilometres wide. It borders the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Source: SNL
The project Jihadist Governance in the Sahel has since 2020 investigated jihadist governance in the Sahel region of West Africa. The project's case countries are Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.
You can read more about the project and the research here!