At the heart of the Sahel crisis was, and still is today, Mali where its future is at stake. Yet not just only she.
Militarily weakened and diplomatically vulnerable, states in the region, and their allies as well, should find a way out of the crisis and not just wait for it to happen.
Two hundred and four (204) jihadist prisoners were freed against four (4) hostages that include three westerners and the leader of the Malian opposition and the payment of a ransom estimated at twelve to fifteen million Euros, or nearly eight to ten (8 /10) billion CFA.
To the hostages and their families delight, are opposed the worries of many Malians partners in the fight against terrorism as well as the fears of neighboring countries. The future will tell if the Malian transitional authorities were right to proceed with this perilous exchange. The Frenchwoman, Sophie Pétronin, was kidnapped on December 24, 2016 in Gao, Mali; the Italians – priest Pier Luigi Maccalli, on September 17, 2018 in Niger, and Nicola Chiaccio, in central Mali in February 2019. The leader of the Malian opposition, Soumaïla Cissé, was taken prisoner late March 2020, in the middle of the legislative campaign.
After Niamey last week, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, is meeting tomorrow Tuesday in Accra, to further deliberate on the situation in Mali. Opposed to unconstitutional changes, only if initiated by the military, ECOWAS does not have a unanimous position on the case of Mali. A country that is experiencing an exceptional
In the Covid 19 exceptional regional and international context, the G 5 Sahel summit is taking place in Nouakchott, Mauritania, this 30 June. A context overcast by an enemy inept to negotiate but hard to defeat. At the same time, governments face an inflation of challenges compounded by the pandemic, weakened economies, and the hardening of born in terrorist groups.
The Sahel is caught in the grip of three major phenomena that threaten its bases: ambient insecurity with the corollary of the great humanitarian challenge to which the coronavirus has recently been grafted. The G5 Sahel countries have declared the coronavirus pandemic now the public enemy number 1. This group included, as of May 21, 2020, 3,366 patients declared positive with Covid 19, of which 2,125 who were cured and 224 deceased. Managing this triple battle requires pragmatism and imagination on the part of the national political authorities and their technical and financial partners.
