Mali offers a perfect convergence of conditions that enables al Qaeda to fund, train and prosecute terrorist operations -- but it also offers the West an opportunity to apply a more efficient and less divisive approach in tackling the global war on terror.

Why then have the populations of SSA's poorest and most repressed states failed to rise up against their rulers? One reason is that they undoubtedly see the instability and chaos that can result.

Timbuktu conjures up images of remote parts of the earth and fabled ancient monuments. Now radical Islamic groups, with ties to al Qaeda, have taken over the north in Mali, destroying monuments and torturing civilians in a brutal interpretation of Sharia law.

More than 18 million people across West and Central Africa are facing a food crisis. This is a fact. 18 million people are hungry and, along with ai...

After 14 centuries, Islamist Arabs have once more conquered the Berbers of North Africa. The Sahara is lost again.

West African gifting is based on the interrelated values that all humanity is linked and that one's well-being is only as strong as that of one's neighbor. Profit and exchange are trumped by a commitment to care for community.

Preventing BH from exploiting sectarian tension is therefore paramount, but shoring up the support of northern political figures while driving through a reformist agenda will be no easy task.

The international community must do everything in its power to reverse the coup d'état in Mali for the sake of the Malian people, for the future of democracy in West Africa and to strengthen the global norm against recognizing governments arising from military coups against democratic regimes.

Some 13 million people are at severe risk from a food crisis which is set to escalate into a full scale humanitarian emergency in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa if urgent action is not taken.