Francophone Africa
From West Africa to Central Africa and the Great Lakes, HD supports conflict parties in finding negotiated and lasting solutions. Its work rests on a network of local mediators, which gives it direct access to the actors involved and a fine-grained understanding of conflict dynamics.
HD acts as a facilitator, mediator or adviser, upholding its impartiality and independence and respecting the sovereignty of states, field-based work complemented by the technical and diplomatic support of its Geneva headquarters. It spans Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad.
Since 2015, HD has facilitated more than 130 local and cross-border peace agreements, which have enabled displaced people to return home and schools and health centres to reopen. Each agreement comes with a monitoring committee, appointed by consensus among the parties and supported towards autonomy. HD also backs national peace processes, from Senegal to the Central African Republic, and negotiates humanitarian access to populations cut off by conflict: in 2025, these negotiations made possible vaccination campaigns reaching more than 600,000 people in CAR and the DRC.
Stories from HD in Francophone Africa:
A watering hole, a field, a path: watch how our mediators turn rivals into neighbours
Discover the story of Naminata, a community leader in southern Mali, whose commitment to peaceful and sustainable resource use has inspired many others across the region
Photo: Community dialogue in Chad as part of HD’s mediation work in the Sahel. © HD
