It is finally by video-conference, in the name of respect for health rules, that Emmanuel Macron will participate in the G5 Sahel summit which opens this Monday in Chad. An eagerly awaited event, both the President of the Republic and the Ministers of the Armed Forces and of Foreign Affairs have given the prospect of important announcements in recent weeks, of a reduction in the French system to a withdrawal schedule, after eight years of a conflict which turned into a veritable quagmire. As in Afghanistan where international troops, led by the United States, are preparing, twenty years later, to return the keys of the country to the Taliban, whom they claimed to be driving out of power, the security situation continues to deteriorate. , despite the triumphant communiques of the French army.[…]
According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2020 was the deadliest year in terms of violence committed by extremist militants in the Sahel, with around 4,250 deaths, a 60% increase over 2019. And 2021 does not look much better, as illustrated by the attack on a Malian army post blamed on jihadists on February 3, killing ten soldiers and causing significant material damage.
Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the insurgents are patiently betting on the lack of motivation of local armies as underpaid as they are under-equipped and on the weariness of Western public opinion in the face of the return of soldiers in coffins – 55 for France since 2013 -, like the meager political, security and social gains obtained. “It is the Afghan syndrome where we explained that, with the military and money to help a poor country to develop, we were going to get there”,notes the ex-diplomat Laurent Bigot (read opposite). Läs artikel