The G5 summit opens in a troubled context for the countries of the Sahel

Text by: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow

Six months after the Pau summit, the G5 countries and their international partners meet in Nouakchott this Tuesday, June 30. A summit to take stock of the commitments made in France, which is also taking place in a context of strong political contestation in Mali and deterioration of the security situation in particular in Burkina Faso.

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Six months after the Pau summit, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is more than ever in turmoil.For several weeks a heterogeneous coalition called the June 5 Movement has demanded his resignation . Some of its members have even threatened to siege the Palace of Koulouba until his departure.

The partners in Mali and in particular France fear that this  political "  floating " which prevails in Bamako will slow down a little more the implementation of the peace agreements of Algiers. "  Malians are breathless in the face of the deteriorating security climate," explains Baba Dakono researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). Until then this feeling was directed towards the international forces present in Mali, today it is directed towards the president  ”, notes it. The opportunity may be, says the researcher, to ask and confront the right questions: which state, which governance for Mali? "  Governance is the Gordian knot of the end of the crisis in Mali and the Sahel  " sums up Baba Dakono.

The question of governance also concerns the army

The Pau summit had acted in January on better coordination between Barkhane and the national armies. The pace of operations has actually accelerated on the ground, but sometimes to the detriment of civilians. "  The efforts of these national armies have been accompanied by a deterioration in their behavior towards civilians  " notes Alain Antil, director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Center of the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri). Amnesty International has also identified 199 incidents related to the Sahelian armed forces between February and April last.

" If national armies claim civilian casualties, this will tend to spark new vocations in people who will seek to protect their own communities. If this point is not resolved, it will only worsen the situation, "worries Alain Antil, who recalls that embezzlement and bribes paid under arms contracts, also fuel the deterioration of the climate, especially in Niger where an audit of the military markets has been a scandal for several months. “  It is from governance that violence is born. We can send the number of soldiers we want on the ground that will not solve anything. It is up to the elites to impose a certain number of red lines on their practice,  ”believes the researcher.

Burkina Faso, a corridor for jihadists

The past six months have also confirmed the security collapse in Burkina Faso. "  All the provinces are affected  " summarizes Mahamadou Sawadogo, specialist in questions of violent extremism. In this difficult context, the government decided in January to recruit and arm volunteers (VDP). "  This strategy adds one more player on the ground which already had self-defense groups and this complicates the securing of the country  " assures the researcher before adding: "  The human balance is not good. Civilians are becoming a target for certain groups which previously spared them because they were unarmed.  "

The weakened Burkina Faso has become a corridor for the jihadists who are progressing towards the countries of the Gulf of Guinea, note our interlocutors. Côte d'Ivoire has not been spared, as the attack on the Kafolo border post almost three weeks ago proved again .

Between the Pau and Nouakchott meetings, there was also the elimination of Abdelmalek Droukdel . The emir of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was killed on June 3 by French force Barkhane aided by American intelligence. This is new data to take into account, but it is difficult to estimate the impact that the restructuring of Aqmi will have on the operations of the groups affiliated to it such as the GSIM and therefore, by extension, on the anti -terrorist led in the Sahel.

► Read also: Emmanuel Macron at the G5 Sahel summit in Mauritania

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• G5 Sahel
• Mali
• Burkina Faso
• Mauritania

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