Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye opened the tenth edition of the International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa in Dakar on Monday, bringing together around one hundred experts for two days of discussions at Diamniadio, a satellite city near the capital. The anniversary forum is taking place against a backdrop of sweeping change across the continent, including the dissolution of the G5 Sahel regional security alliance, the weakening of ECOWAS (the West African regional bloc) following the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and the southward spread of jihadist violence toward Gulf of Guinea coastal states such as Benin, Togo and Ghana. Key topics on the agenda include control of Africa's vast natural resources — the continent holds an estimated 30% of the world's rare earth minerals critical to the global clean energy transition — as well as political transitions, cybersecurity and the restructuring of regional security forces, with participants including senior military officials, African researchers, a US State Department representative and Germany's special envoy for the Sahel.