ON THE JDD
France's battle against jihadists in the Sahel "is a long time," says Army Minister Florence Parly in an interview published in the "Journal du Dimanche" on the eve of a national tribute in memory of 13 soldiers french dead in operation in Mali. "This fight is a long time," said the minister, questioned on the intention of President Emmanuel Macron to reconsider the strategy of French anti-jihadist forces in the Sahel, in an explosive regional security context.
"All options are on the table"
"All options are on the table to make this major operation against terrorism in the Sahel so effective," she says in the columns of the JDD. "When I went to the beginning of November on the spot, I could see that the situation was deteriorating, and the losses suffered by the armies of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, but at the same time the operation Barkhane accompanies the African armed forces gains success, "she pleads.
The French force Barkhane mobilizes 4,500 men in the Sahelo-Saharan strip to fight against the armed groups affiliated with the group Islamic State or al-Qaeda. But despite six years of uninterrupted presence, and 41 dead on the French side, jihadist violence persisted in northern Mali and spread to the center of the country as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. "This region is at the gates of Europe, there is the same distance between Gao and Paris than between Mosul and Paris," warns Mrs. Parly. "Our goal is also to have more Europeans in the front line with France and the Sahel states," she said, while Paris aims to aggregate next year European Special Forces for accompany local armies in combat.
"Shelters for terrorist groups"
"The Czechs, Belgians and Estonians responded first, others will follow once their parliament has validated their deployment," she says. "All Europeans understand that if we do nothing, we will have in front of us huge territories, abandoned by states, which will become refuges for terrorist groups affiliated with Daesh and al-Qaeda," said the minister.
At the regional level, Ms. Parly said that Chad "has agreed to mobilize more on the spindle center as part of the G5 Sahel joint force", a regional military force (Mali, Burkina, Niger, Chad, Mauritania) intended to fight against jihadists in cross-border areas, whose rise to power would eventually allow France to withdraw from the Sahel. French source confirmed N'Djamena's "political will", while indicating that the modalities of a Chadian intervention in the "three borders" zone (Mali-Burkina-Niger) remain to be specified.