A number of terrorist groups are active in the Sahel;
some have pledged allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) or Al-Qaeda.
Even France's chief of staff, François Lecointre, no longer expects a victory in this conflict: “It is a war that has no name.
It is a war that knows no front, ”said Lecointre recently.
The chief of staff is now clearly satisfied with having “prevented the worst,” as he recently publicly put it.
French President Emmanuel Macron's weariness with this war, which he inherited from his predecessor, the socialist François Hollande, is also evident. In most of the five African countries involved in the conflict, the French are no longer perceived as liberators, but more and more as occupiers.