Africa

Bannir toutes formes d’excès, prôner un discours rassembleur et unificateur, pratiquer la laïcité inclusive en tournant le dos au laïcisme borné parce qu’enraciné dans l’intolérance, voilà les thématiques phares qui ont marqué l’intervention du ministre Thierno Amadou Oumar Hass DIALLO, à la faveur du sommet de Nouakchott, en début de semaine, consacré à la lutte contre le terrorisme et l’extrémisme violent dans l’espace sahélien que nous avons en partage.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accusing Libyan militia leader General Khalifa Haftar of violating a cease-fire agreement. Despite deploying Turkish forces to back the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), though, Erdogan seems to be increasingly looking to diplomacy rather than force.

France will further bolster its anti-jihadist force in the Sahel, on top of 220 reinforcement soldiers already sent recently to try to stem a spiral of violence in the region, the country’s top general said Wednesday.

The Sahel is facing an unprecedented wave of violence, with more than 4,000 deaths reported last year, and a bloody start to 2020.

Fighting in Libya has dragged on for the past eight years following the ouster of the country’s longtime leader, the dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

Just as Boko Haram and ISWAP attacks have led to thousands of deaths in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, so have these terror groups caused thousands of deaths in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic. The Jihadist groups include Macina Libration Front, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Ansaroul Islam, Katiba Serma, Al-Qaeda in the Magreb Sahara (AQIM), Al Mourabitoun, Katiba Salheddin, Ansar Dine, Jam’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), and some unaffiliated groups. These groups have a common modus operandi, but operate in different regions and countries. However, in 2017 JNIM was formed as the rallying point for all of them, becoming the international face of the group. A report released by Human Rights Watch in December 2019 showed that between April 2019 and the end of last year, JNIM and its affiliates had killed more than 250 persons in Burkina Faso alone.

Ten years may sound like a blurry, distant future. But built into them are minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years that provide harbor for infinitesimal opportunities that transform the lives of men and the fortunes of nations. Men and nations who benefit from time are those who employ their imagination in crafting long-term visions and discipline themselves to take little, vital steps leading to the realization of visions propounded by their imaginations.

Even if violent attacks are now mostly concentrated around the border of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the unstable area subject to terrorism covers a huge area — equivalent to half of Europe or the United States — and is spread over five countries…. Because it involves such a huge territory, and because Europeans simply do not have the air support and intelligence capabilities of the United States, American support in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel is critical.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey is starting deployment of troops to Libya in support of the embattled United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and in line with agreements relating to maritime border demarcation and enhanced security cooperation.