The G5 Sahel Alliance has committed to the battle for development, a decision taken at the last Pau summit (France) in January with the creation of a “Coalition for the Sahel”.
This organization is aiming to work, in addition to military action, for the development of the region, a statement to APA on Tuesday said.
“The Pau Summit made it possible to note both civilian and military failures in the Sahel-Saharan strip the situation for which seemed to be increasingly bogged down. The military situation now recovered will allow the deployment of the new development strategy of the international coalition,” the statement said.
According to the statement, the Pau summit endorsed the creation of the “Coalition for the Sahel,” a light coordinating organisation intended to become the linchpin of the updated strategy of the G5 Sahel, France and their international partners.
This coalition is organised around four pillars namely combat, military training, governance and development.
“The coalition for the Sahel places its action within a security/development continuum that is supposed to articulate the maintenance of law and order and the return to power of the G5 states towards the long-term resolution of the crisis,” the statement added.
“The coalition for the Sahel seems to have applied realistic and diplomatically consensual solutions in order to move towards a real way out of the crisis. It will still take years to achieve this, but the first effects should be felt by early 2021, at the next summit,” the statement said.
The Nouakchott summit, held on June 30, provided a fresh new impetus to development in the Sahel following a strategy of spatial targeting and prioritization of projects.
This is with a view to better coordinate with military advances, the statement stated.
The Alliance for the Sahel manages some 800 projects and 12 billion funds.
“It is the embodiment of the fourth pillar (coalition development) and coordinates the action of other international bodies concerned with development issues in the sub-region (French Development Agency, Pact for Security and Stability in the Sahel – P3S), etc.,” the statement concluded.
LB/ls/lb/as/APA