“We made a commitment but we did not go to the end of the process”, estimated on franceinfo Peer De Jong, vice-president of Themiis, a military and police training company which works in particular in the Sahel, and former aide-de-camp of Jacques Chirac, while the Barkhane force left Timbuktu, in Mali, after nine years of presence.
franceinfo: What does this departure represent?
Peer De Jong: It is symbolic because it is the big city of the North that we are going to abandon. It makes sense because since we left Tessalit and Kidal, it is part of a system that will focus mainly on the region of the three borders. We are refocusing on Gao for the ground forces and the air forces will position themselves in N’Djaména.
Is this the right device that France is taking with more intelligence activities, less conventional staff?
The way Africans look at us has changed. We made a commitment but we did not go to the end of the process. The staff would have had to be tripled in order to be more efficient. There is no choice when you have 2,000 fewer men. The gauge planned for next year is about 3,000 men, so 1,000 in Mali and 2,000 in N’Djaména, so this is part of a device that has been retracted and which will continue to evolve in function. discussions that the president will have next week. If Mali engages in serious discussions with AQIM at that time, France will review its objective and we will be able to move very quickly towards a departure from Mali. Today, Africans do not understand why we do not go to the end of the process and they are looking for alternatives, such as negotiating with the Russians.
France is counting on a rise in local armies. Do you accompany them with Themiis?
We are in extremely serious discussions with the Malians who have a dynamic army, which functions relatively well. The problem is that they are faced with a situation which is uncontrollable when you have all the campaigns, at least in the North, which are held by terrorist or anti-government forces. It is extremely complicated. It is an army that is doing the right thing and I think that the future mission of the French army will be support, intelligence, intervention and coaching.
Is it possible to completely defeat the jihadists in the Sahel?
When you have 2,000 or 3,000 men, it is irrelevant to imagine that you can control all of these countries. So it’s uncontrollable on the surface. It is absolutely necessary to put in place security and development mechanisms and it is necessary that populations far from the capital can benefit from an improvement. We must bring water, set up care, education. The army can participate.