French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on Tuesday, addressing members of the G5 Sahel summit in N'Djamena, on the need to strengthen both the fight against jihadist groups and the return of the state to the territories neglected in the region.
A year ago, at the opening of this same summit in Pau, which brings together the countries participating in the Barkhane force (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso), “the observation of the situation in the Sahel was critical », Acknowledged the president by videoconference from Paris.
The armies came under daily attacks and anti-French sentiment was growing stronger.
France has reinforced its troops on the spot, going from 4,500 to 5,100 soldiers within Barkhane, and European Union states have become more involved in the new group of special forces Takuba, agreeing "thus to mutualise the risk of sacrifice. ultimate that our soldiers take ”.
At the beginning of January again, five French soldiers, including a first woman, had lost their lives.
At the cost of heavy tributes, but by the indescribable courage of our soldiers, combined with that of their Sahelian brothers in arms and a greater intervention by our European partners, the results are there.
It's concrete: https://t.co/3RZc5ar57l
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 16, 2021
A year later, "we have succeeded in obtaining real results in the area of the three borders", between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, argued Emmanuel Macron, and the main target group, the Islamic State organization. au grand Sahara (EIGS), “has lost its grip and suffers many losses”.
The French head of state welcomed the decision taken Monday by Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno to send 1,200 soldiers to this “three borders” area.
But jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda, such as the Support Group for Islam and Muslims and Katiba Macina, still pose a threat in the Sahel, he said.
We therefore need "reinforced action" to "try to decapitate these organizations".
No “immediate” drop in staff numbers
Beyond the military aspect, the French president insisted on the need to "give a perspective to the populations of the Sahel" through better cooperation.
It is necessary, he pleaded, "a second leap", that the State reinvests the abandoned territories of the region by bringing back "the security and the services to the populations".
A massive withdrawal of French forces "would be a mistake", he also estimated, adding that there would be no drop "in the immediate" in French military personnel.
"No doubt significant changes will be made to our military system in the Sahel in due course but they will not take place immediately," he declared, explaining that "it would be paradoxical to weaken our system in the Sahel. moment when we have a political and military alignment favorable to the achievement of our objectives ”.
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G5 Sahel summit: Operation Barkhane in 3 questions
More than eight years after the start of the crisis, 2020 has been a terrible year for the military and for the civilian populations who still live there.
According to the former French ambassador to Mali, Congo-Brazzaville and Senegal Nicolas Normand, who wrote a long contribution for the weekly Le Point, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies has listed for the past year nearly 4,250 deaths in violence in the Sahel.
And it was in January that the milestone of 2 million displaced persons was crossed.
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VIDEO.
In 2019, in the hell of a jihadist sanctuary with French soldiers
