The Diplomacy of African Boundaries

Four disparate but vicious conflicts have soiled Africa’s soil as the twenty-first century begins, all involving territorial or boundary questions in a continent that is otherwise territorially stable. The oldest, Western Sahara, currently in remission but since 1975 pitting Algeria and the Polisario Front against Morocco, entered a new phase in 2007 when the UN Security Council dropped the idea of a referendum for a negotiated solution and Morocco officially proposed the solution of autonomy. Two border wars, in 1998–2000 and 2011 and counting, declared and undeclared, respectively, followed state self-determination when Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia and South Sudan broke away from Sudan. Finally, an army mutiny freed the northern part of Mali to declare independence under the National Liberation Movement of Azawad (MLNA), which was then pushed aside by various Islamist movements under the control of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib (AQIM), in 2012.