Paris (AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Tuesday to "behead" the jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda, which still constitute a threat in the Sahel, and specified that France did not intend to reduce "immediately" the strength of its anti-jihadist operation Barkhane.

"No doubt significant changes will be made to our military system in the Sahel in due course but they will not take place immediately," Macron said on the sidelines of the G5 Sahel summit in N'Djamena.

Paris was considering a few weeks ago to initiate a withdrawal at the start of the year by recalling the 600 soldiers sent to reinforce the Sahel a year ago.

The French anti-jihadist operation Barkhane is currently mobilizing 5,100 soldiers.

Emmanuel Macron estimated that "it would be paradoxical to weaken our system when we have a political and military alignment favorable to the achievement of our objectives".

The French president, however, paved the way for a gradual decline in the French military presence.

"In the long term and beyond the summer, I would like us to work with our partners for an evolution of our presence", uninterrupted for eight years in the Sahel, he insisted.

Despite the claimed tactical successes, the picture remains very bleak in the Sahel.

More than eight years after the start of a security crisis in northern Mali that continues to spread its metastases to the sub-region, hardly a day goes by in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger without an attack.

The bar of two million displaced persons was crossed in January.

Since the Pau summit, where Paris had designated the organization Islamic State in the Great Sahara (EIGS) "enemy number 1" in the region, "we have succeeded in obtaining real results in the area of ​​the three borders", between Mali , Niger and Burkina Faso, and EIGS "has lost its grip and suffers many losses," argued the French president.

- A summit "before summer" -

But organizations affiliated with Al-Qaeda grouped within the GSIM (Support Group for Islam and Muslims) continue to claim multiple attacks, said Macron, promising "enhanced action" to "try to go behead these organizations "," whose highest hierarchy continues to feed a jihadist agenda ".

For its part, Mali had said it was ready in 2020 to open channels of discussion with these groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda, including Katiba Macina.

Emissaries were sent to Iyad Ag Ghaly and Amadou Koufa, two figures of the GSIM, a jihadist nebula linked to Al-Qaeda responsible for numerous attacks.

Very little information filtered out on these contacts until the overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in August 2020. The soldiers, who have since implemented a transition supposed to return power to civilians within 18 months, have posted their desire to give the country a new start.

In October 2020, during a visit to Bamako by the head of French diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian, who had ruled out any discussion with the jihadists, the Malian transitional Prime Minister, Moctar Ouane, stressed that the "inclusive national dialogue ", a vast national consultation held at the end of 2019," had "very clearly indicated the need for an offer of dialogue with the" jihadist armed groups.

Mr. Macron on Tuesday welcomed the decision announced the day before by Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno to send 1,200 soldiers to this area of ​​the "three borders".

It is "a strong and courageous decision which will consolidate the strength of the G5 Sahel", he commented.

The Head of State also thanked the European countries participating in the new grouping of special forces Takuba, "which thus accept to mutualize the risk of the ultimate sacrifice which our soldiers take".

Beyond the military component, the French president insisted on the need to "give a perspective to the populations of the Sahel", calling for a "second leap: that of the return of security and services to the populations" and demanding " an impetus at the highest level of the State "to reinvest the neglected territories of the region.

A new meeting of the heads of state of the G5 Sahel will take place in the spring and a summit "before the summer", specified Mr. Macron.

jri-dab-leb-lp / jhd

© 2021 AFP