Last week, Ethiopia’s parliament unanimously ratified a treaty with five of its neighbors that opens the way for broad regional cooperation on the use of the waters of the Nile River.

In the latest in the series of “IntelBriefs” on African security issues being produced by the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center in partnership with the Soufan Group, an international strategic consultancy, Africa Center Deputy Director Bronwyn Bruton and Intern Sam Fishman assess the potential for further engagement between the United States and Africa in light of President Barack Obama's upcoming trip to Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania.

Bronwyn Bruton, deputy director of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, spoke at an event launching the World Bank’s newly released report, The Pirates of Somalia: Ending the Threat, Rebuilding a Nation.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Brian Todd on CNN’s Situation Room in a segment on the discovery of evidence in northern Mali that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) may have acquired surface-to-air missiles.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Robert Siegel on recent trends in piracy off the coast of Somalia for today’s edition of the NPR’s All Things Considered.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Carol Castiel on the fiftieth anniversary of the African Union (AU) and its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, as well as the security challenges that were discussed at recent AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for this week’s edition of the Voice of America’s Encounter.

Rudolph Atallah, senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was featured on CNN with Barbara Starr to discuss the inner workings of the al-Qaeda branch in North Africa, including a letter from its leaders to terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar indicitating their dissatisfaction with his performance.

Organized crime—especially various forms of smuggling and narco-trafficking—is the lifeblood of the vast under-governed expanse of the Sahara. It is within this largely decentralized and politically corrupt milieu that terrorists and criminals work together to access weapons and money to sustain their symbiotic operations.

In the latest in the series of “IntelBriefs” on African security issues being produced by the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center in partnership with the Soufan Group, an international strategic consultancy, Africa Center Assistant Director Adrienne Chuck argues that growing population, increasing urbanization, and climate change trends make food security prospects in Africa seem dire.

While some suggest the threats in the Sahara and Sahel are local or regional in scope, their impact is global. Even a cursory overview of the involvement of North Africans as itinerate jihadists linked to al-Qaeda demonstrates this.