AFP
Patrick Fort in Abidjan with Fabien Zamora in Paris
France has deployed 4,500 troops in the region (AFP Photo/Alain JOCARD)
The Sahel region has become a haven for jihadist groups, who are now carrying out attacks almost daily in the vast, fragile region despite a fightback by international and local armies.
The latest strikes included Tuesday’s raid in northern Burkina Faso, which killed 17, and another at the gates of the Niger capital Niamey that claimed the lives of two policemen.
Eighteen members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara were meanwhile killed in a joint operation by US, French and Niger troops near Niger’s border with Mali, Niger’s defence ministry announced on Tuesday.
The June 8-18 operation took place in the northern border region of Tongo Tongo and targeted a group “implicated in an ambush on May 14,” in which 28 Nigerien soldiers were killed,” it said.
The volatile western rim of the southern Sahara includes conflict-ravaged Mali as well as Mauritania and Chad, which have become hunting grounds for a range of armed militia including some linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.
“It’s Sisyphean, it never stops!” said a French security source, referring to the figure in Greek mythology whose name signifies endless labour and frustration.
Sisyphus was punished for eternity by being forced to roll a boulder to the top of a hill, only to see the rock roll down again once it neared the peak.
Further complicating matters are the Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria who have now extended their attacks to neighbouring countries in a decade-long campaign of violence that has killed 27,000 people in Nigeria alone.
There are 13,000 soldiers in a UN peacekeeping force in Mali, while France — the former colonial ruler of several western Sahel countries — has deployed 4,500 troops to Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission code named Barkhane to help local forces flush out jihadists.
The so-called G5 Sahel group — comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger — have sent 5,000 troops to help expand their anti-terror campaign.
However, their impact seems so far to be meagre.
