It's a debate with Wathi

The stabilization of Mali is essential to West African regional security

Audio 03:52

Gilles Yabi.

Archive of Gilles Yabi

By: Gilles Yabi Follow

4 mins

Gilles Yabi, you wrote in a text published a few days ago that "

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Indeed, it is a question of recalling that we cannot be satisfied with taking up the comments of researchers, journalists and other observers in France, elsewhere in Europe, in the United States or even in Russia and China, who are only interested in the failure, or at best, the semi-failure of the French military intervention in the Sahel.

These analyzes are quite interesting, as were the dozens of articles on the failure of the United States in Afghanistan and the spectacular return to power of the Taliban in this country. 

In either case, the decision-makers of the powers that deploy their forces thousands of kilometers from their national territories, like the overwhelming majority of their fellow citizens, are hardly affected in their daily lives by the security and sociopolitical conditions that prevail after their intervention, whether it is a failure, a semi-success or a resounding success. 

The law of the strongest is therefore always the best or almost in international relations, you say... 

Yes, and international news reminds us of this at the moment, with the serious crisis in Ukraine which will mobilize all European countries for months, much more than the situation in the Sahel. 

But another information not very commented on has also caught my attention in recent weeks.

On February 11, President Joe Biden decided that his government would confiscate the Afghan central bank's reserves deposited in the United States, $7 billion, and use half of these resources to honor the compensation claims of the families of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001. 

Apart from the Taliban spokesman who called the decision a "theft" reflecting the "human and moral decadence" of the United States, the decree did not cause a stir internationally.

And anyway, commotion and protests or not, the first world power has decided and that's it.

Since the departure of Western troops from Afghanistan, who is still really interested in the fate of the Afghan populations who have remained there?  

For Mali, the Sahel and West Africa, the most important thing today is not to know what Barkhane's departure means for France and its influence in Africa, but what prospects this opens up for short and medium term for security and stability throughout West Africa. 

You believe that the diplomatic and economic isolation of Mali, the stabilization of which is a sine qua non condition for regional security and for the preservation of the achievements of regional integration, must be avoided.

Absolutely.

This crisis threatens the already fragile dynamics of West African regional integration in political, security and economic terms.

The discourteous declarations of certain authorities of neighboring countries of Mali are likely to make difficult the cooperation which is and will remain essential for regional security.

Everyone's overconfidence in the correctness of their positions and the confrontation of egos can create considerable damage. 

The return on February 24 of the ECOWAS special envoy to the field in Bamako is a step in the right direction and it is to be hoped that the transitional authorities will quickly provide the regional organization with the pretext it needs to proceed with a relief economic sanctions.

These clearly do not achieve their political objectives or will achieve them only at a very high cost.

These sanctions make the daily life of populations even more difficult a few weeks before the start of the month of Ramadan.

There is little chance that a worsening of the political, socio-economic, food, educational crises in the Sahel countries will be in the top 10 concerns in France, Germany or Russia.

And I don't see why it would be otherwise. 

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