"The fight against terrorism in the Sahel is a failure, it is urgent to rethink the strategy"

Present in Dakar on Monday, 18 November, at the opening of the International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa, the French Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, urged the West African countries to "leave no chance, no decision "jihadist groups in the Sahel.

"One thing is certain: jihadist groups will benefit, as soon as they can, from our weaknesses, our lack of coordination or our inadequacies in terms of resources, commitments or training," he said. , calling to "look at the situation in the face", "in its nuance and sometimes, in its more cruel truth".

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But, while France is committed since 2013 in this region and Emmanuel Macron has been waiting for two years for the rise of the G5 Sahel - force supposed to take over the operation Barkhane and composed by the troops of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad - the balance is negative. So more and more observers are calling for a change of strategy in the fight against terrorism.

This is particularly the case of Jean-Claude Félix-Tchicaya, a researcher at the Institute of Foresight and Security in Europe (IPSE), specialist in the Sahel, interviewed by France 24, who believes that "the strategies implemented are used until "rope" and it is time for governments to listen to "the geopolitics of peoples".

France 24 : The fight against terrorism in the Sahel is on the agenda of the International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa. Should we rethink the strategy implemented ?

Jean-Claude Félix-Tchicaya: Yes, it is urgent to do so to bounce back against terrorist groups who, they, have a well-defined strategy and who take advantage of the mistakes of a coalition that does not speak enough. The strategies implemented are worn out: from the outset, they were mainly aimed at calming groups that were dissident in northern Mali, but have, as a result, favored the "balkanization" of a party of the Sahel. In short, as states were drained financially, ethnic forms of self-defense were organized by creating militias. But this has encouraged the growth of inter-ethnic struggles and has weakened northern Mali and part of Burkina Faso.

An overview of Operation #Barkhane and the jihadist threat since 2017 in central #Sahel (#Mali 🇲🇱, #BurkinaFaso 🇧🇫, and western #Niger 🇳🇪). Sources: @ACLEDINFO and @MENASTREAM. pic.twitter.com/YJumMgsTfO

In addition, there was no significant coordination among the states concerned, despite the support of several foreign states, and this led to a disunity of forces. As a result, with 465 jihadist attacks in 2018, the fight against terrorism in the Sahel is a failure.

How is the action of the governments of the countries involved in the G5 Sahel harmful to the success of the fight against terrorism ?

Beyond the lack of communication between the states involved, the main problem comes from the lack of political response of different governments. There are economic, education and health problems in the Sahel on which terrorist groups thrive. But the leaders in place use international aid to stay in power rather than to solve social problems.

>> Read: In the Sahel, the rise of the Islamic State complicates the fight against jihadism

But that can not last. Today, the African people are demanding change because they see peace forums succeed one another, and at the same time, they see a rise in insecurity. Now we see what is happening in Algiers or what happened in Khartoum [Sudan], there is a geopolitics of peoples that is starting to grow very strong. Demonstrations are taking place every week in Bamako [in Mali], Ouagadougou [Burkina Faso] or Niamey [in Niger], and the protest is also moving away on social networks to alert governments to the urgency of the situation.

Édouard Philippe is present in Dakar. What should France do ?

The military will not be enough to solve the crisis of governance and social crises. France knows very well that the 4,500 soldiers of Operation Barkhane are useless if there is no common strategy. Édouard Philippe must therefore encourage the Sahel states to work together, and that is what he did in his speech Monday morning. But he must also absolutely listen to civil organizations - trade unions, researchers, opposition parties - who ask France to change its diplomacy, its way of operating with certain contested governments. The fact that Paris supported Blaise Compaoré in Burkina Faso, for example, has undermined the confidence of the people, who are the first victims of bad governance, corruption and terrorism.