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the year 2022 marks a sudden return of international issues to public debate under the effect of a war in Ukraine which is fueling conflicts, instability and potential food crises all over the world. After a major electoral cycle in France, it is also towards the Sahel and Africa that the attention of the new authorities must turn.
Because, for almost ten years, it is in this region that French military and diplomatic investment has been the most marked – starting with the deaths of more than fifty of its soldiers – and it is there that more could be played out. largely a good part of the future of France’s relationship with the continent.
However, the events that have taken place in recent months have only reinforced the observation that France’s policy has failed. The withdrawal of the “Barkhane” force from Mali, announced in February, and the multiplication of demonstrations hostile to France and its interests will have been significant elements of this reality. They are not the only ones.
The Sahelian conflict has taken a new geopolitical turn that the Ukrainian crisis has unexpectedly shed light on with the consolidation of Russian interests in the region. French policy in the Sahel is in this respect a major reconstruction project that must be approached with seriousness and foresight.
This implies drawing lessons from the shortcomings and setbacks of its approach, which will have been mainly structured around a military and security dimension, without sufficiently taking into consideration the political and social roots of the crisis. Sahelian governments are struggling to provide the entire population – 40% of whom live below the poverty line – with basic social services such as health, education, social protection, security, and respect for rights fundamentals.
Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad, three of the five G5 Sahel countries, are now governed by military authorities; 4.5 million people have fled the violence and nearly 7 million people in the central Sahel are acutely food insecure.
Failover
This multidimensional crisis will surely lead the people of the Sahel to make new choices of forms of state and, more broadly, of values and models of society. As evidenced by the spread of conflicts, popular protests and political instability, the region is undoubtedly in the process of tipping over into a new period in its history.
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