Common Acronyms

Acronyms can be convenient, but they can also sometimes function to exclude the uninitiated from important conversations. On this blog, I try to always give the full version of a name or phrase before rendering it as an acronym, but it may also be helpful for readers to have a list, in one place, of acronyms that frequently come up in discussions about Africa and the Sahel region. Please contact me if you have an addition for the list:

Multi-Country
AFRICOM – United States Africa Command
AGOA – African Growth and Opportunity Act
AQIM – Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
AU – African Union
DFID –Department for International Development (United Kingdom)
ECOWAS – Economic Community of West African States
ICC – International Criminal Court
PSI – Panel-Sahel Initiative
TSCTP – Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Partnership
USAID – United States Agency for International Development

Chad
MINURCAT – United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad

Djibouti
CJTF-HOA – Combined Joint Task Force, Horn of Africa

Ethiopia
EPRDF – Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, the ruling party

Mali
ADEMA – Alliance pour la Démocratie en Mali

Nigeria
JTF – Joint Task Force (Niger Delta)
MEND – Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
PDP – People’s Democratic Party, the ruling party
SSS – State Security Services

Senegal
PDS – Parti Democratique Senegalais, the ruling party
PS – Parti Socialiste

Somalia
AMISOM – African Union Mission in Somalia
TFG – Transitional Federal Government

Sudan
CPA – Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005
GoSS – Government of South Sudan
NCP – National Congress Party, the ruling party in North Sudan
SAF – Sudan Armed Forces
SPLM/A – Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, the ruling party in South Sudan
UNMIS – United Nations Mission in Sudan