Paul Melly - Recent developments in Francophone Africa

Paul Melly is a researcher and reporter covering politics and development in west and central Africa, and Madagascar, with a particular  interest in the Sahel. He contributes to a range of media and travels regularly, meeting political, government and business figures, civil rights, researchers and campaign groups — and West Africans from a wide range of backgrounds in both cities and the countryside.

He has written or co-authored research reports on food security in the Sahel, nutrition, and women in rural communities, Mauritania, Senegal and northern Niger, informal trade, French policy in Africa and crisis mediation by the EU – for Chatham House, the EU, the World Food Programme, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and other institutions. Currently his work focuses largely on the Sahel crisis, civil rights and policing, and political instability across the region.