The reduction of the French contingent present in the Sahel is expected but the context gives it a political twist.

France should soon repatriate 600 soldiers deployed in the Sahel a year ago as part of Operation Barkhane.

"We will very probably have to adjust this device: a reinforcement, by definition, it is temporary", affirms the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, Monday, January 4, in an interview with the Parisian.

The French army lost five soldiers in two jihadist attacks, on December 28 and January 2, in Mali.

These deaths bring to 50 the number of French soldiers killed in the Sahel since 2013 in the anti-jihadist operations Serval and then Barkhane, said the army staff.

The attacks were carried out in Hombori and Ménaka.

A choice "not trivial" according to Wassim Nasr, specialist in jihadist movements at France 24. "Hombori is the region visited by the Chief of Staff, the Minister and the Prime Minister at Christmas. This attack is a response to their visit, which intended to demonstrate that this area was secure, ”he analyzes.

"As for Ménaka, where the Barkhane-Minusma joint base is located, we know that it is there that the Czech forces were to be operational in a few days. This is taken into account by the jihadists who send a political message" , says Wassim Nasr.

The jihadist group intends to encourage the populations of Western countries sending troops to the Sahel to put pressure on their governments for a recall of the soldiers, according to the specialist.

"Al-Qaeda knows very well that there is a threshold in a Western society beyond which the population no longer supports a military intervention abroad, underlines Wassim Nasr. Let us recall that the Madrid attacks perpetrated in 2005 led to the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq. "

"Important military successes"

The Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, however reaffirmed, on Saturday January 2, "France's determination in its fight against terrorism".

A fight that is bearing fruit, according to Florence Parly.

"During the year 2020, we have achieved significant military successes, both by neutralizing several senior officials of these terrorist groups and by attacking their logistics chains to disrupt them," the minister assures us in Le Parisien.

The leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi), the Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdal, was notably killed in northern Mali in June.

Paris also announced the "neutralization" in November of Bah Ag Moussa, presented as the "military leader" of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

>> To read: The death of jihadist Bah Ag Moussa "widens a rift between France and Mali"

The Barkhane force numbered 5,100 troops in 2020 after sending 600 more troops in February.

The decision to reduce its workforce "is up to the President of the Republic, Head of the Armed Forces", recalls Florence Parly, which suggests an official announcement concerning the recall of 600 reinforcements at the next joint summit of France and the G5 Sahel countries in February in N'Djamena in Chad.

Negotiate with the terrorists?

For their part, faced with the persistence of jihadist violence, coupled with inter-communal conflicts, the transitional authorities in Mali do not rule out entering into negotiations with armed groups, just like before President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, overthrown by a putsch in August.

The GSIM, the Sahel's main jihadist alliance, called in a statement claiming Monday's attack for the Barkhane force to be withdrawn from the Sahel.

In this press release, authenticated by the American center for the monitoring of jihadist sites SITE, he also referred to the cartoons of Muhammad and the defense taken by President Macron of their publication in the name of freedom of expression, as well as the government's policy. French vis-à-vis Muslims in France.

Paris excludes any discussion with the GSIM staff which "responds to the central hierarchy of Al-Qaeda", noted on December 21 a source in the French presidency.

France, on the other hand, is more open when it comes to elements of the GSIM, which "have a much more national, often opportunistic, sometimes regional agenda", added this source, while Florence Parly mentions in Le Parisien those "who filed weapons and who are not motivated by a radical and criminal ideology ".

With AFP

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