"We are not winning the battle against terrorism, but we have learned from our failures"

Niger is the country of great challenges: nestled in the arid Sahel, landlocked, with the highest illiteracy, poverty and birth rates in the world, crossed by one of the main migratory routes to Europe and in recent years seriously beaten by the violence of jihadists and criminal gangs. In February, Mohamed Bazoum, a 61-year-old professor of Philosophy and a member of the Arab minority, became the country's new president with a harsh discourse of resistance and fight against terrorism, but also with Education as a renewed flag to face all those challenges, as he explains in this exclusive interview with EL PAÍS carried out on Saturday night in a room of the presidential residence in Niamey.

Question.

His rise to power represented the first transfer between civilians in Niger's history.

In a region with recent examples of deteriorating democratic quality, what is the key?

Answer.

Democracy in Niger is authentic at least since 1991. We have had coups, but there are things that have never changed.

We have a Constitution that establishes a semi-presidential regime, we maintain a good election system and a truly independent electoral commission.

These three great conquests are proof of the authentic character of democracy in Niger and they are what allowed the election of a person like me, a member of an ultra-minority community.

Q.

You have launched an important commitment to Education as a transforming instrument, but with an illiteracy rate higher than 70% and an average of seven children per woman, how do you hope to solve this equation?

R.

Niger's population growth of 4% per year is a reflection of the poor quality of the education system. Students have many difficulties learning to read and write, but to raise their level, the training of teachers must be improved. Second, 40% of students drop out of school after Primary because they have to move to other towns. That is why we promote proximity institutes and, specifically for girls, who are the main victims of school dropouts, the creation of boarding schools for the State to take care of their schooling. In this way, we improve their educational level and protect them from early marriage and from beginning pregnancies at age 13, offering them a prospect of higher education and employment.It is with education that we hope to remedy the phenomenon of rampant demography.

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Q.

Niger has two open and expanding jihadist fronts, in the east in the Diffa region, and in the west, Tahoua and Tillabéri, how will you deal with this threat? The dialogue with these armed groups, As posed in Mali or Burkina Faso, is it a solution?

R.

The Islamic State of the Greater Sahara, which is based in Mali, but operates on our territory, is headed by a Saharawi who has no claim on Niger, is not an interlocutor for us, is not in our territory, is not of our country. The other organization, Islamic State of West Africa, has its bases in Nigeria, its heads are from that country and they also have no claim on Niger. Even if we wanted to have interlocutors we would not have them, so the problem is not the same here as in Burkina Faso, Nigeria or Mali. That does not mean that we do not pass messages to young Nigerians who belong to these groups, but we emphasize the effectiveness of our military action, we have learned a lot from our failures and our strategy is improving.The proof is that in Diffa we are already facilitating the return home of the displaced population.

Q.

Does that mean that, in your opinion, you are winning the battle against jihadism?

R.

We are not winning the battle because it is a phenomenon in full expansion.

The internal situation in Mali [where there have been two coups d'état in less than a year and a military man governs] has not allowed the mobilization of resources that we hope to face terrorism.

As long as the situation in that country does not evolve favorably, there will be a great strategic space for terrorism in West Africa that will continue to pose problems for us.

Q.

You encourage the return of the displaced who fled due to violence. Are these villages now safe?

R.

We would never have considered that return if we were not sure of guaranteeing their safety.

If not, it would be useless work.

Returning to their homes and their economic activities, they enter into a perspective of resistance against terrorism and contribute to the effort of the State.

We count on using the population as a lever to contribute to the security of the area, not on the front line, which is what our defense forces are for.

But the lessons we have learned from our six-year fight against Boko Haram empower us to contemplate, with great serenity, the return of the population to their villages.

Q.

Are you concerned about the end of the French Barkhane operation and the reduction of French troops in the Sahel? Do you think that the effectiveness of the military response may be weakened?

R.

I have always thought that the doctrine of use of French forces in the Sahelian theater would not give results at the level of the mobilized forces. The best suited way to fight terrorists is not the one we can expect from Barkhane, the terrorists we face ride motorcycles and are able to disappear into the field very easily. With columns of armor and heavy vehicles moving en masse, something that is perceptible from far away, the enemy has many advantages. The most appropriate forms of combat are those carried out by light, special forces. I think it is one of the lessons that the French authorities have learned and adapt their device to the demands of the situation.

Q.

The north of Nigeria on the border with Niger is experiencing great instability due to the presence of criminal gangs who steal, kidnap and kill, are you concerned that jihadist groups are taking advantage to penetrate and create a corridor throughout the south of the country?

A.

The groups that operate in the border forest between Niger and the Nigerian states of Katsina and Zamfara are vulgar bandits who have found a no-man's-land and disturb the population on both sides of the border. In my opinion, these are groups that will hardly fall into a terrorist logic and what we see, in the opposite direction, is that it is the terrorists, whose religious dimension is falling apart, who are turning into bandits. Contagion therefore occurs in reverse. You cannot create a

jihadist

continuum

from Diffa to Tillabéri because the terrorists need trees, forests, sanctuaries and there is a large area without vegetation between Katsina and Lake Chad.

Q.

Through Niger you cross one of the main migratory routes to the Mediterranean and Europe, what do you think of this phenomenon?

R.

The migration of young Africans is an expression of the suffering that is experienced in Africa and that particularly affects its youth. For a person to leave their home they must have very serious reasons. Niger is not a country of origin because the school enrollment rate and the level of education are so low that children do not acquire the knowledge that allows them to access the consciousness of trying to reach Europe. After the fall of [Muammar el] Gaddafi, Libya became a real sieve, but we organized ourselves to prevent Niger from being the corridor through which these migrants pass, we have applied a tough policy to combat migration and we have had great results from 2017. Although some Africans are still trying, today Niger is no longer a country of transit as it was before.

Q.

What health and economic impact has COVID-19 had on Niger and what do you think of the difficulties in accessing vaccines on the continent?

R.

Sanitary not much.

We have had about 5,000 infected people and 193 deaths, with about twenty people hospitalized at this time.

However, the measures adopted such as the closure of borders and the paralysis of activity have had a catastrophic economic effect, a very high impoverishment in a context that was already very difficult.

On the other hand, our problem with vaccines is not access, we have from China and the Covax mechanism, but the lack of resources to mobilize the teams to vaccinate.

Doing it with our budget is very expensive, it is not conceivable considering the level of prevalence of the disease.