The Africa Study Group and the Middle East Institute are pleased to invite you to the third discussion in a series focused on the Sahel and Sahara regions. Worsening political instability in the Sahel is increasingly garnering international attention and concern. In September 2022, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that non-functional state institutions in the region have fostered a growing humanitarian crisis and allowed non-state armed groups to step into the vacuum and consolidate their hold on local areas and populations.