Africa Peace Point

Africa Peace Point is a Pan-African peace building resource organization committed to the realization of peace through conflict transformation and reconciliation in Africa. Its sole aim is to seek to influence policy in areas relevant to its mission, and promote reflection and learning from peace building practices.

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AfricaFiles

AfricaFiles is a network of people committed to Africa through its promotion of human rights, economic justice, African perspectives and alternative analyses.

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African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies

The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) is an independent non-governmental pan-African organisation, established in The Gambia since 1989. The organisation plays a central role in promoting and protecting human rights and democracy in Africa, through the media of capacity building, networking, action-oriented research, publication and documentation

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African Centres for Peace Education and Training

The Pan-African Reconciliation Council (PARC) is a grassroots organisation working for socio-political as well as moral emancipation of Africa on the basis of nonviolence and self- love. Its 700 members include educational institutions, religious organisations and individuals in some twelve African countries and in Europe.

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Assesing Risks of Genocide and Politicide

"In 1998, in response to President's Clinton's policy initiative on genocide early warning and prevention, the author, a senior consultant with the Task Force, was asked to design and carry out a study that would use her own and other data sources to establish an empirically and theoretically grounded, data- based system for risk assessment and early warning of genocidal violence." -- from Website

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Assessing Country Risks of Genocide and Politicide in 2009

Assesses the potential for genocide and politicide in 22 states throughout the world.

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Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

"The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) is dedicated to building a worldwide community of policymakers with the tools and the commitment to address conflict before it turns into genocide." -- from Website

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Center for International Conflict Resolution

"The Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at Columbia University, New York, contributes to the resolution of international deadly conflict through research, education and practice. CICR strives to increase understanding of international conflicts through innovative, collaborative research and is committed to offering courses, fellowships, scholarships and training programs that disseminate knowledge about conflicts and their causes." -- from Website

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Center for Strategic and International Studies

"CSIS provides strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions to decision makers in government, international institutions, the private sector, and civil society." -- from Website

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Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP)

The CCDP is the Graduate Institute's focal point for research in the areas of conflict analysis, humanitarianism, peacebuilding, and the complex relationships between security and development. Its research projects focus on the factors and actors that are implicated in the production and reproduction of violence within and between societies and states, as well as on policies and practices to reduce violence and insecurity and enhance development and peacebuilding initiatives at the international, state, and local levels.

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Child Rights Information Network

CRIN envisions a world in which every child enjoys all of the human rights promised by the United Nations, regional organisations, and national governments alike. CRIN is building a global network for children's rights, pressing for rights, not charity, and advocate for a genuine systemic shift in how governments and societies view children.

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Citizens for Global Solutions

"Citizens for Global Solutions envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone. This vision requires effective democratic global institutions that will apply the rule of law while respecting the diversity and autonomy of national and local communities." -- from Website

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Committee on Conscience

This is a subsidiary site within the Holocaust Museum's larger website, focusing on genocide.

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Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

The Genocide Convention was adopted by the UN in 1948 and defines genocide in legal terms; the culmination of years of campaigning by lawyer Raphael Lemkin.

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Enforcing International Standards of Justice: Amnesty International's Constructive Conflict Expansion

The authors describe the theoretical principles underlying Amnesty International's (AI) success in defending international human rights.

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European Roma Rights Centre

"The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is an international public interest law organisation working to combat anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma through strategic litigation, research and policy development, advocacy and human rights education." -- from Website

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Genocide Prevention Project

"The Genocide Prevention Project seeks to build the public will to call on the international community to take meaningful actions when 'early warning' indicators signal possible onset of mass-scale atrocity crimes, and to mobilize resources to avert or halt such ongoing crises and protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes. The focus is on public education and advocacy." -- from Website

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Genocide Prevention Task Force

"The Genocide Prevention Task Force was launched on November 13, 2007 and released its report to the public on December 8, 2008. It was jointly convened by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, The American Academy of Diplomacy, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. It was funded by private foundations. Its goals were: (1) To spotlight genocide prevention as a national priority; and; (2) To develop practical policy recommendations to enhance the capacity of the U.S. government to respond to emerging threats of genocide and mass atrocities." -- from Website

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Genocide Studies Program

"Founded in January 1998, the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies conducts research, seminars and conferences on comparative, interdisciplinary, and policy issues relating to the phenomenon of genocide, and has provided training to researchers from afflicted regions, including Cambodia, Rwanda, and East Timor. The GSP also maintains research projects on those catastrophes, on the Nazi Holocaust, the genocides in Bosnia and Darfur, and on colonial and indigenous genocides." -- from Website

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Genocide Watch

Genocide Watch exists to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder. We seek to raise awareness and influence public policy concerning potential and actual genocide. Our purpose is to build an international movement to prevent and stop genocide.

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Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska is a non-party, independent, non-government, non-profitable association of citizens. From its very foundation, this non-government organization is dedicated to promotion, protection and monitoring of human rights in Republika Srpska and the region. It also focuses on education of citizens, especially the young, on the main humanistic and civilization values, which human rights are based on.

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Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"The major forum for scholarship on the Holocaust and other genocides, Holocaust and Genocide Studies is an international journal featuring research articles, interpretive essays, and book reviews in the social sciences and humanities. It is the principal publication to address the issue of how insights into the Holocaust apply to other genocides." -- from Website

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Human Rights

"The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States over 200 years ago. Since then, a central goal of U.S. foreign policy has been the promotion of respect for human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States understands that the existence of human rights helps secure the peace, deter aggression, promote the rule of law, combat crime and corruption, strengthen democracies, and prevent humanitarian crises." -- from Website

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Human Rights Library

"The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library houses one of the largest collections of more than sixty thousand core human rights documents, including several hundred human rights treaties and other primary international human rights instruments. The site also provides access to more than four thousands links and a unique search device for multiple human rights sites. This comprehensive research tool is accessed by more than a 250,000 students, scholars, educators, and human rights advocates monthly from over 150 countries around the world. Documents are available in nine languages - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish." -- from Website

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Human Rights Promotion & Protection

This subsection addresses human rights promotion and protection as a central component of peacebuilding processes. The objective is to protect people from further abuses and address the structural, systemic conditions that give rise to human rights violations. A general improvement in the human rights situation is considered essential for the rehabilitation of war-torn societies. More important, the promotion and protection of human rights must aim to deepen a culture of human rights within a society, as an ongoing part of the nation-building and socio-political recovery process. As such, human rights promotion and protection contributes to the transformation of societal conditions that could potentially generate violence.

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Important Skills for Humanitarian Professionals Working in a Contemporary Conflict Environment

This essay discusses several important skills and tools that allow humanitarian agencies to better tackle the challenges of contemporary conflicts. By examining several case studies, the author illustrates why each of the skills is important and how it is used in real conflict situations.

Beyond Intractability Essay

In Support of the Legal Determination of Genocide

This comment responds to Robert M. Hayden's concerns by highlighting the importance of contextualizing definitions of genocide and by advocating that determinations of genocide be legally defined. Sari Wastell argues that legal determinations are contingent and contestable when established as "adjudicated facts," that the law is the most appropriate venue for broaching these debates, and that the proposed genocide denial legislation that worries Hayden cannot target legitimate inquiry into the coherence of legal definitions of the crime of genocide. While reports, rumors, and accusations of genocidal activity might well be the impetus for the establishment of ad hoc tribunals such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the existence of these international bodies is precisely aimed at determining the "truth" of these claims in a legal sense.

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Institute for the Study of Genocide

"The Institute for the Study of Genocide is an independent nonprofit organization chartered by the University of the State of New York, located at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. The ISG exists to promote and disseminate scholarship and policy analyses on the causes, consequences, and prevention of genocide. It was founded in 1982 to fill a gap in both the scholarly and the human rights communities which did not recognize the continued prevalence of genocide. To advance these ends, it publishes a semi-annual newsletter and working papers, and initiated study of life-integrity violations cross-nationally. It holds periodic conferences, maintains liason with academic, human rights, and refugee organizations, provides consultation to representatives of media, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and advocates passage of legislation and administrative measures related to genocide and gross violations of human rights." -- from Website

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Inter-Religious Dialogue

The Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue is a forum for academic, social, and timely issues affecting religious communities around the world. Published online, it is designed to increase both the quality and frequency of interchanges between religious groups and their leaders and scholars. By fostering communication, the Journal hopes to contribute to a more tolerant, pluralistic society.

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International Association of Genocide Scholars

"The International Association of Genocide Scholars is a global, interdisciplinary, non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes, and consequences of genocide, and advance policy studies on prevention of genocide. The Association, founded in 1994, meets to consider comparative research, important new work, case studies, the links between genocide and other human rights violations, and prevention and punishment of genocide. A central aim of the Association is to draw academics, activists, artists, genocide survivors, journalists, jurists, public policy makers, and other colleagues into the interdisciplinary study of genocide, with the goal of prevention." -- from Website

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International Center for Transitional Justice

"The International Center for Transitional Justice is an international non-profit organization specializing in the field of transitional justice. ICTJ works to help societies in transition address legacies of massive human rights violations and build civic trust in state institutions as protectors of human rights." -- from Website

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International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect

"Recognizing the failure to adequately respond to the most heinous crimes known to humankind, world leaders made a historic commitment to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity at the United Nations (UN) 2005 World Summit. This commitment, entitled the Responsibility to Protect, stipulates that: 1. The State carries the primary responsibility for the protection of populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing; 2. The international community has a responsibility to assist States in fulfilling this responsibility; and 3. The international community should use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means to protect populations from these crimes. If a State fails to protect its populations or is in fact the perpetrator of crimes, the international community must be prepared to take stronger measures, including the collective use of force through the UN Security Council." -- from Website

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International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala

"The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, known by its Spanish acronym, CICIG, was established as an independent investigative body by a treaty-level agreement between the United Nations and Guatemala. CICIG began its operations in January 2008 with the objective of assisting the Guatemalan State in investigating and dismantling violent criminal organizations believed to be responsible for widespread crime and the paralysis in the country's justice system." -- from Website

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International Institute for Peace

IIP's aim is to conduct research and disseminate the results in order to contribute to the maintenance and strengthening of peace. The institute worked on the "Preventing an Outbreak of Violence in National and Ethnic Conflicts" project which sought to draw up a long - term preventive strategy.

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Justice in Perspective

"This site is a project of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) and contains an overview of the transitional justice processes which have been, and are currently being, undertaken or explored by various countries. The information is prepared to provide a quick overview of the different institutions and processes and easy access to key sites." -- from Website

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Montreal Institute For Genocide and Human Rights Studies

"MIGS' approach is comparative and historical and involves scholars in Canada, France, Great Britain, Israel, and the United States. Through its Occasional Paper Series and its web site, it collects and disseminates knowledge created by researchers about the historical origins of the mass killings that have become such a prominent part of our time. MIGS also accomplishes its mission through teaching, workshops, conferences, and publications. Additional information and web links are made available on this Web site." -- from Website

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Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)

In 1945 there were around 3,000 international NGOs; by 1990 that number had increased to more than 13,000. This essay discusses both the positive and the negative effects NGO's have on conflict.

Beyond Intractability Essay

Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence

"The Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence (OEMV) is a regularly updated electronic database focusing on massacres and genocides of the 20th century. Currently, there is no tool available that documents and classifies our knowledge by continent, country and historical period. The OEMV's first objective is to fill this gap by offering reliable historical description and interdisciplinary analysis of both well-documented and less well-known 20th century massacres. Resources provided include chronological indexes, case studies, analytical contributions on socio-political violence in a given country, a glossary of the terms most often used in the field of genocide studies as well as theoretical papers written by the most representative authors in the field." -- from Website

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People under Threat 2009

"Every year Minority Rights Group International publishes Peoples Under Threat, identifying those groups or peoples around the world most at risk of genocide, mass killing or other systematic violent repression. 2009 is the fourth year that MRG has compiled the list, which is based on current indicators from authoritative sources..." -- from Website

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Physicians for Human Rights

"Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses the integrity of medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals." -- from Website

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Prevent Genocide International

"Prevent Genocide International is a global education and action network established in 1998 with the purpose of bringing about the elimination of the crime of genocide. The organization makes particular use of the Internet as a way of linking persons around the world in a transnational network of global civic engagement and action." -- from Website

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Religiously Motivated Violence, Murder and Genocide

This is a "gateway" site that links to a variety of stories about religiously motivated violence - violence perpetrated upon "the other" because they are not seen as part of the human community, deserving of respect, care, and equal treatment.

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Revised and Updated Report on the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

This website provides the full account of the Uniter Nations Economic and Social Council of Commission on Human Rights thirty-eighth session on the prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities.

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Save Darfur

This site focuses on the coalition to end genocide in Darfur.

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Stop Genocide Now

"Stop Genocide Now (SGN) seeks to change the way the world responds to genocide by putting a face to the numbers of dead, dying and displaced.SGN is a grassroots community dedicated to working to protect populations in grave danger of violence, death and displacement resulting from genocide. Through active education, advocacy and policy change SGN resolves to change the way the world responds to genocide. SGN is currently focused on creating awareness and action to stop the genocide in Darfur and deal appropriately with its aftermath. All of our projects focus on and utilize the strength and power in grassroots connectivity." -- from Website

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Task Force on the United Nations

"How is the United Nations fulfilling its mandate? In December 2004, Congress directed USIP to create a Task Force on the United Nations to assess this vital question and to recommend an actionable agenda." -- from Website

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The Brahimi Report and the Future of UN Peace Operations

This new study, led by William Durch and Victoria Holt, will assist both experts and generalists to deepen their understanding of how the UN and its peacekeeping department have worked to implement significant changes in its practices proposed three years ago.

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The Documentation Center of Cambodia

"The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) is an independent Cambodian research institute. Since 1995, we have built a reputation as an international leader in the quest for memory and justice." -- from Website

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The European Center for Conflict Prevention

The European Centre for Conflict Prevention (ECCP) is the international secretariat of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), which most of ECCP's activities currently center on.The ECCP is a non-governmental organisation that promotes effective conflict prevention and peacebuilding strategies, and actively supports and connects people working for peace worldwide. As the secretariat, the ECCP proactively provides services to the network. It coordinates and supports its activities with particualr attention to priority programmatic areas.

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The Genocide Prevention Advisory Network

The Advisory Group is an informal, international network of experts on the causes, consequences, and prevention of genocide and other mass atrocities. The Group has no staff, structure, or formal links to other organizations. Its members provide risk assessments and advice to all interested parties, including the UN, individual governments, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, and any other international political grouping that designs and promotes policies aimed at preventing and mitigating mass atrocities that have or may acquire genocidal dimensions.

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The International Campaign to End Genocide: A Review of Its First Ten Years

This article reviews Genocide Watch's efforts to create a movement to end genocide in the twenty-first century. The author concludes by stating the importance of the International Campaign to End Genocide as a movement to abolish genocide and conquer the defeatist mentality regarding the end of genocide.

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The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

"The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up by the Government of National Unity to help deal with what happened under apartheid. The conflict during this period resulted in violence and human rights abuses from all sides. No section of society escaped these abuses." -- from Website

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The Stanley Foundation

"The Stanley Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, private operating foundation. Foundation programming is focused on promoting and building support for principled multilateralism in addressing international issues." -- from Website

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Transitional Justice Database Project

"The Transitional Justice Data Base Project began at the University of Wisconsin in 2005, and is run by three political scientists: Leigh A. Payne, Tricia D. Olsen, and Andrew G. Reiter. The team has created a global data base of over 900 mechanisms (trials, truth commissions, amnesties, reparations, and lustration policies) used from 1970-2007." -- from Website

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia

"The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia investigated 'the root causes of the conflict, the impact of the conflict on women, children and the generality of the Liberian society; responsibility for the massive commission of Gross Human Rights Violations (GHRV), and violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Human Rights Law (IHRL) as well as Egregious Domestic Law Violations (EDLV).'" -- from Website

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea: Outline

"Under the 'Framework Act on Clearing up Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation', the Commission's purpose is to foster national legitimacy and reconcile the past for the sake of national unity by honoring those who participated in anti-Japanese movements and exposing the truth by investigating incidents regarding human rights abuses, violence, and massacres occurring since Japanese rule to the present time, specifically during the nation's authoritarian regimes." -- from Website

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Truth Commissions

Truths commissions are official groups endowed with the authority to extensively investigate the human rights abuses and war crimes committed in a specific country or region during a specified time period.

Beyond Intractability Essay

Turkish Coalition of America

This organization's mission is to educate the general public about Turkey and Turkish Americans and voice their opinion on critical issues to interested parties, as well as engage a new generation and promote friendships between America and Turkey.

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UN Debate on Genocide Asks: Protect or Intervene?

"Out of genocides past and Africa's tumult a controversial but seldom-used diplomatic tool is emerging: The concept that the world has a "responsibility to protect" civilians against their own brutal governments. At the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pushed Tuesday for more intervention for the sake of protection." -- from Website

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West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP)

WANEP envisions a peaceful and fair West African community where human rights are enforced and people can meet their human needs and dictate their own direction. WANEP carries out research on West African approaches to conflict resolution and publishes the results, operates a peace-building internship and training program, and works to strengthen the capacity of peacebuilding practitioners and organization in West Africa.

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