Niger and Sahel Conflict - Peacebuilders Must 'Step Back, Engage'

"It seems that we have military who want to stay in power, they do not really have the intention to give back the power to civilians. So we have to fight with all these things in Sahel. So that means that currently I can say that I'm very pessimistic, but there is no way to see if Sahel can be a land in which we can have peace." - veteran Niger journalist Gare Amadou

"From the Sahel region, I think that the issue is about giving the youth opportunity to also contribute to governance within the Sahel now really about the becoming president or leaders of this country, because I'm yet to actually see any empirical evidence of whether old people as presidents... whether they perform better than the old people or the old people perform better than the youth." - Dr Festus Kofi Aubyn, peacebuilding researcher and lecturer

"Ten years of investment in peacebuilding will go down the drain, one day, boom, there's war or a military coup. Explosive, you will begin from scratch. So there has to be a deliberate, consistent and clear approach, which is not limited only to the leadership or the people in this country. But this is where institutions like ECOWAS, the African Union, and you know, United Nations, could provide the required political support ... " - Professor Ibrahim Bangura, peacebuilding researcher and lecturer.