Dear friends,
With Security Council ongoing visit to Mali with Keynia its current chair and Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere, of France, there are no alternative to optimism.
The present visit comes at an interesting though turbulent time of multiple tensions.
Ahmedou Ould Abdallah
President of Centre4s
Sahelian Africa is a region that has been evolving for several years under the spotlight due to the security crisis, however this is linked to other factors that are worth remembering: demographic, food, environmental, health.
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.
Will the Coronavirus pandemic have consequences on the security situation in the Sahel?
The risks of a positive response are great: foreign soldiers engaged in the fight against terrorism and evolving in this sub-region are mobile and come from several countries, some of which are hotbeds of transmission, such as China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the USA. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) includes 57 nationalities, as y different pandemic situations. Though at various severity levels, the G 5 Sahel members states are now victims of the pandemic, Burkina Faso being the most affected.
The G 5 Sahel and France Summit should be held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on February 24. It should go to the actual issues and deal with the most urgent, in order to give hope to the Sahel populations. And probably also to their allies.