The announcement of Bamako returns “de facto” to act the end of the regional anti-jihadist force, Ornella Moderan analysis, researcher at the Institute of Security Studies.
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Mali announced, Sunday, May 15, withdraw from the G5 Sahel and its anti-Djihadist military force, trained with Mauritania, Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger. Eight years after its creation, the future of this regional organization, launched to try to stem the terrorist threat which continues to gain ground in the Sahel, seems more than ever in suspense.
Ornella Moderan, Director of the Sahel Program of the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), based in Bamako, deciphers the reasons for this withdrawal and its consequences for the sub-region.
How do you analyze this decision of Mali to withdraw from the G5 Sahel and its joint force?
Ornella Moderan The rotating presidency of the institution, currently exercised by Chad, should in principle be transferred to Mali in February, but some member countries opposed it, due to the two coups d’etat which had had Place in Bamako, August 2020 and May 2021, and the transition extended to it. After the series of sanctions adopted in January by the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO) against them, the Malian authorities see this refusal as yet another ban and announce this withdrawal, as a sign of protest .
This decision by Mali, which has already broken its links with the French force “Barkhane” and the European Task Force “Takuba”, could isolate it a little more on the regional scene. But one wonders if the blocking of the rotating presidency was not above all a pretext to leave the G5 Sahel and further consolidate cooperation with other partners, such as Russia. This decision must be placed in a context of a deep reconfiguration of alliances in the region in recent months. If it is to free yourself from the old alliances that it is, then one wonders what will be the next structure in the viewfinder of the Malian authorities. After “Barkhane”, “Tabuka” and now the G5 Sahel, will they put an end to MINUSMA?
The Malian government spokesman Abdoulaye Maïga denounces an “instrumentalization” of the G5 Sahel and sees, behind the blocking of the Malian presidency, the “maneuvers of an extra-regional state aiming desperately to isolate Mali”, that Should we read between these lines?
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