A G5 Sahel summit opened in the Chadian capital N’Djamena on Monday, without the physical presence of the French president who is participating by videoconference.
After announcing he would attend the summit President Emmanuel Macron later changed his mind.
The G5 Sahel brings together Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
In France, as in Sahelian nations, the decisions from the summit will be keenly followed, given that the security situation in several of the countries in the region remains very worrisome.
Despite efforts by Paris and its partners, jihadist movements continue to be active and are spreading in large swathes of the Sahel.
Since the launch in January 2013 of France’s Operation Serval, replaced in 2014 by Barkhane, more than fifty French soldiers have lost their lives.
In 2020 alone eleven had died in the line of duty in the Sahel.
Thousands of civilians have been either killed by militants or became victims of local militias or armed and security forces.
Since the Pau summit in the south of France, in January 2020, between President Macron and the G5 Sahel’s five heads of state, the combined efforts of Barkhane, the European Takuba Task Force and local armies have dealt jihadist movements a severe blow.
But they remain a serious threat, as evidenced by the regularity of their often deadly raids.
“Barkhane has achieved many tactical successes, particularly during Operation Bullseye. Several jihadist leaders have been neutralized,” said Christian Cambon, chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces of the French Senate during a debate under the theme “Operation Barkhane: assessment and prospects.”
During this meeting, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, stated that “the Pau Summit was that of a military start. The N’Djamena Summit must be one of diplomatic and political awakening; a leap also in favour of development.”
“Development aid is essential to deal with the root causes of evil and to prevent our forces from being perceived as occupying troops. But while we spent €900 million in 2019 on military operations, we have only mobilised €85 million in official development assistance to Mali,” Cambon said.
In 2020, four priorities have been identified in Pau. One of them, however, is the development of the G5 Sahel countries in order to protect vulnerable sections of the population, particularly idle young people and the poor, and prevent them from being tempted to respond to the calls of jihadism.
According to Mr. Le Drian, “the G5 Sahel must take responsibility and improve the coordination and territorialisation of development aid.”
Florence Parly, the Minister of the Armed Forces, agreed.
“Transforming military wars into economic and social progress will be the whole purpose of the N’Djamena Summit” Parly said.
For the past five years, the head of French diplomacy stressed, Paris has increased its official development aid to the Sahel by more than 30 percent.
According to him, in a year 350 million euro has been disbursed by the French Development Agency (AFD) to speed up projects in the region.
In addition, the Sahel Alliance bringing together 24 partners was created in 2017.
This programme “supervises (in this zone) 870 projects for a total amount of 20 billion euros,” Le Drian explained.
“We have good results. The primary schooling of 200,000 Nigeriens, the rehabilitation of 1,800 classes in Mali, the distribution of 40,000 textbooks in Chad … fighting for education is fighting against obscurantism,” he added.
As a prelude to the N’Djamena Summit, Bah N’daw, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, Mahamadou Issoufou, Idriss Deby Itno then Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, respectively presidents of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, were received one by one at the Elysée by President Emmanuel Macron to refine their positions.
TE/id/cgd/lb/as/APA