Fonteh Akum is the Executive Director of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). He is the former Head of the Lake Chad Basin program in the Dakar office of the ISS. He joined the ISS in 2017 as a senior researcher in the Peace and Security Research Programme in Pretoria, after which he moved to ISS Dakar as a senior researcher. Before joining the ISS, he worked for the United States Department of Defense, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, and the Africa Program of the United Nations University for Peace. His research covers violence, governance, and human security in the Lake Chad Basin. He has a Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.