Between ideological varnish and organized crime Political geography shines a special light on the crisis in the Sahel and Sahara. It highlights the role of natural conditions in the population's vulnerability and fragility; citizens must move to survive. It reveals the weight of history, poorly understood yet sturdily carried by today's generation. It focuses on a more worrisome than comforting population growth, and on governments' poor governance and inability to provide security. In this context, we wonder: Do the spatial reconfigurations that we are witnessing arise from a desire to make a more-radical Islam prevail, or do they result from organized crimes perpetrated by warlords, jihadist or otherwise?