“The Sahel risks collapsing on itself,” says Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu

Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso… “The Sahel risks collapsing on itself.”estimates the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, in an interview published by The Parisian Friday September 29. “All this will end very badly for the juntas in question,” he says, after a series of coups in the region which saw the military come to power.

A few days earlier, Emmanuel Macron had announced the withdrawal of 1,500 French soldiers from Niger by the end of the year, and the return to Paris of the French ambassador to Niamey. But Sébastien Lecornu refutes the idea that the departure of French soldiers from Mali, Burkina Faso and soon from Niger is a failure of French policy in the Sahel. “It’s a failure for the countries in question,” he insists.

“The Malian regime preferred [le groupe de mercenaires russe] Wagner to the French army. We see the result: the Bamako region has since been surrounded by jihadists.”

Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces

in “The Parisian”

“And we are told that the problem is France! We have been a solution for the security of the Sahel”defends the minister, adding that France had managed to neutralize most of the jihadist cells and “made safe” thousands of civilians, before being forced to leave. “It was enough that we were invited to leave for terrorism to resume”, deplores Sébastien Lecornu. The latter cites the case of Burkina Faso, which since the coup d’état of September 2022, has recorded “2,500 deaths linked to terrorism”. “Mali is on the verge of partition and Niger will unfortunately continue in the same direction”he warns.