Free hostages in Mali: joy of some and fear of others
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.
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.
« The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, » proclaimed President Franklin D Roosevelt to his compatriots struck by the Great Depression. Ninety years later, that message remains valid against the Covid19.
In the Sahel, where an armed conflict has been ongoing since 2012, today, the greatest risk is »the war of each against all ». The widespread civil war situation evoked by Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century looms over the Sahel and already exists in Libya.