Kamissa Camara
Kamissa Camara is currently Director of External Affairs and Africa Policy at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Senior Visiting Expert for the Sahel at the United States Institute of Peace. Until August 2020, she was Minister, Chief of Staff to the President of Mali, after holding the positions of Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Minister of Digital Economy and Planning of Mali.
An expert in African politics with a focus on the Sahel and West Africa, she is the founder of the Sahel Strategy Forum (SSF), a platform that aims to enlighten public opinion on the complexities of governance in the Sahel region, making various voices heard from the ground to the United States. Born and raised in France by Malian parents, Kamissa Camara studied in France, before going on to pursue an international politics career in the United States.
For years, African politics, democracy, security, and good governance were the essence of her work, reflections, and publications. Kamissa Camara helped the West understand African politics by building political and intellectual bridges between sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the United States. Her great contribution helped to enrich the foreign policy of Western countries with African accents.
She regularly participated as guest speaker on panels at the U.S. Congress, American, French and African think tanks and universities. She was also a regular guest on TV and radio programs, which include but are not limited to CNN, Aljazeera, BBC Africa (radio and TV programs), Voice of America (French and English TV), I24News, France24, TV5, TRT World and RFI.
