 Mali and Burkina Faso presents three major dilemmas for West Africa and the world in general. The first is security, the second is governance, and the third is humanitarian. This is the latest. By design, all coups are justified by the coup plotters as responses to discontent, responses to malgovernance by people that were elected to govern. But in the hearts and minds of the people that are the direct victims of this coup, the story is always different. They are just victims of power plays between the military and the political class. And sometimes there is a collusion between the two. Now that is the scenario we see in Mali and Burkina Faso today, where the countries have had experiences of democratic rule, but these experiences were halted by coup detards leading to the emergence of military dictatorship in the countries. USIP has been able to leverage on its convening powers in bringing key actors together to look at, to discuss and look at more practical ways of solving these problems. Beyond the convening powers, USIP has also been involved in supporting local actors, giving local actors voices, giving local actors platforms for them to speak out, for them to be the change that they want to see the world be in terms of having communities, societies, countries that are secured, countries that are peaceful, countries where the gains of development are attained because the people are enjoying peace. And in West Africa, specifically, we've seen a lot of that happening, supporting network of facilitators, supporting communities in working with the justice and security institutions, supporting traditional rulers, supporting religious leaders, supporting women and youth as key agencies for driving peace in the countries. In terms of how we're able to mobilize and give agency to critical voices, women, youth and other change makers in these countries is very key. We also need to get key institutions like the African Union, ECOWAS, G4 Sahel and other critical institutions within the African continent and the West African region to come together and begin to implement some of the policies that they have around one. The non-recognition of coup plotters, of dictators as leaders within those regions, we need to isolate them, isolate them in a way that makes them hand over power, isolate them in a way that gives the people the opportunity to elect the leaders of their choices. And this is something that I think need to be done in a way that will keep the fire of democracy burning in those countries. The other point of focus should be that the humanitarian needs of the people is of immediate concern. This is something that leaders of Africa should be concerned about, should speak with one voice in addressing, because where this is not addressed, it becomes a major humanitarian crisis for the entire continent. Refugee situation in Africa will be an unfortunate situation and in order to avert it, members of the African Union or ECOWAS should come together to look at how well they can address this problem in a sustainable manner.