Dr Banga (Ivory Coast): "The jihadists want to prove that they are still in the area"

Audio 05:18

By: Sidy Yansané Follow

Four years after the attack on Grand-Bassam beach, Côte d'Ivoire is once again hit by a terrorist attack. During the night of Wednesday to Thursday, a position of Ivorian forces, located in the north-east of the country, some two kilometers from the border with neighboring Burkina Faso, was besieged by an armed group, causing the death of a dozen soldiers. Dr. Arthur Banga, researcher in the history of military strategies, brings his analysis to the microphone of our correspondent in Abidjan.

Publicity

RFI: A mixed post of the Ivorian army and gendarmerie was attacked very close to the border with Burkina Faso, a dozen dead and six wounded according to the chief of staff. An attack on Ivorian soil with such a heavy toll it had not happened since the attack on Grand-Bassam in 2016.

Arthur Banga: Yes, of course… This is the second time that Côte d'Ivoire has been hit in four years, but there is still a difference in approach. As much in Bassam, we felt a long prepared and meticulously prepared operation. There it was a reaction operation, which used rather traditional means, a rather classic way of operating, which consisted in encircling an isolated post and being able to impose combat before the arrival of reinforcements. A classic tactic that can be seen in the countries of the Sahel, which shows that it is not so much the power of projection that was sought, but a way to mark the spirits and to reaffirm its position after the joint operation led by the Ivorian and Burkinabè army.

Precisely, this attack took place in the Kafolo area, three weeks after an anti-terrorist operation carried out jointly by the Ivorian and Burkinabe armies to dislodge the jihadists who found refuge in Ivorian territory. So the attack on Wednesday night would be the response of these armed groups?

First, it must be understood that the jihadists who operate in the Sahel are somewhat losing momentum in this area, the death of Droukdel shows. They tried to spread further south. They already touched the north of Benin some time ago, and there, the south of Burkina for a while and why not the north of Côte d'Ivoire, in their desire for expansion. And to bring the Ivorian and Burkinabe armies to cooperate, to work and to bomb them a few weeks ago. Everyone suspected that the jihadists were going to want to respond and show that they are still present in the area. I think logically this is what happened.

But we are still talking about a response only three weeks, a little less than a month after the operation. What does that say, precisely, of the effectiveness of these anti-jihadist operations, even joint ones, against the armies of the two countries ?

We are going to go into a battle that will be long, which is already long. Since at least 2011, the Sahel has been inflamed by these jihadists. In any case, the jihadists, in their territorial conception, have no limits. Just because you don't react doesn't mean they won't attack you. So it doesn't change much.

You were rightly referring to the kidnapping last year in northern Benin of two French tourists and the assassination of their guide by armed groups, apparently from Burkina Faso, there too. Following this, the Ivorian army launched the operation " Border tight " which allows to strengthen the protection of the borders by the military presence. Does this operation give results ?

If we want to judge the effectiveness of operations against terrorists and jihadists by their total silence, no operation would be effective. As I say, this is a long war, a perpetual war that will require a lot of courage and a lot of innovation. I think it is well done, it was rather good to carry out operations to try to sanctuarize the north of the Ivory Coast which was under the incisive threat. On the contrary, the reprisals today show that we must continue the efforts that have been made to strengthen the equipment, the mobility of our armies and coordination with neighboring armies, and even the international armies which are present in the sector. .

Last year again, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara proposed the creation of a G5 for the countries of the Gulf of Guinea, such as Ghana, Benin or Togo, among others, in order to support the fight against terrorism by the G5 Sahel and Minusma, and above all, to block the jihadist wave which is approaching more and more of the coast. Is this idea gaining ground in the sub-region ?

Already, Côte d'Ivoire is really engaged in international and sub-regional cooperation against terrorism. There is the Accra initiative, which makes it possible to coordinate information, there is the operation "Comoé" which shows bilateral relations ... But I think that instead of creating Adhoc committees each time, we must give more meaning to the ECOWAS, to its defense committee. This idea of ​​strengthening cooperation, institutionalizing it, even in our military practices, I think it is something fundamental in order to be able to respond to the threat. Because, as I said, the terrorist threat knows no borders. The answer should not have borders.

Can we speak of a jihadist terrorist risk inside Ivorian lands and whose agents are Ivorians ?

In any case, you have to be vigilant. Because, to thrive, terrorists always need internal support, people they will convince, either by surfing on religion, on certain ideologies, or by surfing on poverty, on divisions ... And so they will seek fertile ground to be able to spread and evangelize by their conviction to be more effective on the territory. The territory of Côte d'Ivoire is already in the eye of the storm and they will continue to infiltrate, trying to have the maximum number of people possible. This is to be expected. We must prepare accordingly, already working on de-radicalization projects, the fight against radicalization, but also the fight against inequalities and social injustices.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Terrorism
• Ivory Coast

On the same subject

Joint military operation Côte d'Ivoire-Burkina: a neutralized terrorist base