[…] Since 2013, France, with the Serval and then Barkhane operations, has been militarily engaged in the Sahel and today has some 4,500 soldiers deployed in this vast area. Forty-three soldiers have since lost their lives, including 13 last November, in a helicopter crash. […]
“The drama of Kouré is all the more worrying as it takes place a few tens of kilometers from the capital, Niamey, insists Bertrand Badie. This is further proof that the strategy implemented with Barkhane and the G5S is not the most effective. Not only does it not attenuate the conflict in any way, it exacerbates it, ”continues this expert in international relations.
In recent years, France has not been as welcome as at the start of its commitment decided by François Hollande. “Unlike the United States, which had suffered Al Qaeda attacks on its own soil, France seems to promote a preventive war in the Sahel, which provokes a desire for revenge on the part of Africans”, underlined a few months ago Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, research director at IRD (Research Institute for Development) in an interview with L’Opinion. This mistrust was all the more reinforced as France was able to be involved in spite of itself in armed abuses by its African allies.“ […]
Even if at the Quai d’Orsay, the time has not officially come to questioning Operation Barkhane, the question is on the table. “France has no specific function to hold in the region,” says Bertrand Badie. It should not persist in a military action which is a very clear distortion with the real stakes of these countries. Civil peace and security will only be found in this region by tackling structural problems: the economic, social and ecological crisis and the decay of states. In the meantime, the French forces of Barkhane were on the bridge this Sunday to provide support to the Nigerien army after the tragedy of Kouré. Läs artikel