France alone cannot do it: Macron announces the closure of the Barkhane operation in the Sahel
Enrico Martial's article
On the eve of the G7 in Cornwall, President Emmanuel Macron announced at a press conference the end of the Barkhane military operation and the transformation of the French military presence in the Sahel, increasingly exposed to jihadist attacks and the strengthening of the Islamic State of West Africa.
The Barkhane operation now has 5100 French soldiers, various means and bases, and was born with the name of Serval in 2013 during the Hollande presidency to save Bamako, capital of Mali, which at the time was in danger of falling into jihadist hands.
Macron spoke clearly of disengagement already at the G5 Sahel in Pau on January 13, 2020, when Trump's United States also seemed to be unmarking, and he repeated it several times. It seems an encouragement to the arduous effort of Europeanization "at the southern border of the Mediterranean", with the birth of the Takuba task force, which now has 700 special forces from Estonia, the Czech Republic and Sweden, and many other promises. Italy has planned 200 soldiers and some vehicles, and we would be on the eve of departure.
Only that things are falling apart, even though Macron said the change has no direct relation to the latest events. Not only are jihadist attacks increasing, while the evidence of Russian and Chinese presences is growing, or while we are witnessing other weakening of other governments, such as in Chad , after the death of President Idriss Déby, or in the Central African Republic, as Start explained.
France does not accept the second military coup carried out in Mali on May 24 under the leadership of Assimi Goïta, who became president on June 7, which is read in France as an approach to the positions of radical Islamism . The new prime minister, Choguel Maïga, is of Islamic "conservative" positions, and announcements are heard in favor of the application of the sharia in parts of the national territory (a political victory for the Islamic State), in which the state administration is absent. Precisely: "the lasting presence of France in external operations – Macron said – cannot replace the return of the state and state services to political stability and the choice of sovereign states".
The change will take place during the month of June, and Macron's announcement seems above all a message to the West. The French disengagement leaves a void, which can be filled by the Islamic State, or at least in part by Russian forces, and which points to (Western) internationalization and Europeanization the only acceptable answer in the Sahel. As a substitute for the French operation Barkhane, Macron indicated Takuba, that is the European and international force, "a military operation and an international alliance involving the states of the region and all our partners strictly focused on the fight against terrorism" .
The return of the United States on the international scene, with Joe Biden, however, is an element of reassurance, which perhaps allowed the gamble of the announcement, before the meetings in Cornwall.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-francia-da-sola-non-ce-la-fa-macron-annuncia-la-chiusura-delloperazione-barkhane-in-sahel/ on Fri, 11 Jun 2021 07:43:11 +0000.