Andrey V. Korotayev

In October 2014, mass protests began in Ouagadougou, triggered by the constitutional reform in Burkina Faso, which suggests the possibility of extending the term of the incumbent President Blaise Compaoré in power and his nomination in the 2015 elections. The parliamentary meeting to consider the constitutional amendments was scheduled for October 30, and on the same day the representative of the protest movement Emil Pargi Par announced that “a Black spring is announced in Burkina Faso, similar to the Arab spring”. The references to the events of the Arab spring by the Burkinan protesters are not accidental – the Arab protests of 2011 really played a big role in the dynamics of socio-political instability around the world, acting as a kind of trigger for a global destabilization wave. In this regard, it seems relevant to study the forms and methods of the influence of the events of the Arab spring on the Black spring in Burkina Faso.

Authors consider interaction of factors of Tuareg nationalism/ separatism and Islamist radicalism/jihadism in Mali. They show the influence of the Arab Spring on the development of the processes of growth of Islamist radicalism and Tuareg separatism in the northern regions of this country. Authors analyze the fourth Tuareg uprising, the Islamist revolution in Azawad that took place in the summer of 2012, the Islamist offensive in southern Mali in 2013 and its impact on relations between Bamako and Tuareg nationalists, as well as a new jihadist offensive in recent years. It is concluded that the central government of Mali and the Tuareg nationalists again turn out to be situational allies, since they now face one main enemy that threatens the existence of both the Malian state and potential real Tuareg autonomy, Azawad - Islamist jihadi radicals.

The paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economies of North African countries. The pandemic is shown to have had a significant impact on the economies of the countries in the region. Despite the decisive measures taken by the governments of the North African countries to limit social contacts in order to slow down the spread of the virus, the consequences of the pandemic have significantly slowed down economic and social projects and worsened the internal situation. The leading country in the region, Egypt, faced a high rate of spread of the coronavirus due to its densely populated population, but was best prepared for the financial and economic turbulence caused by the consequences of COVID-19. Morocco’s economy coped relatively painlessly with the COVID restrictions and showed good recovery growth rates. Algeria’s economy experienced slow economic growth on the eve of, during and after the pandemic. The worst impact of the pandemic was felt by the Tunisian economy, which was in deep stagnation at the start of the pandemic. The stimulus measures had a short-term effect and did not have a decisive impact on the Tunisian economy, which continues to show low rates of economic development. The graphs presented by the authors on the dynamics of total GDP and GDP at purchasing power parity clearly support the above conclusions.