The Nouakchott summit: prospects and challenges

The Nouakchott summit brought together French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez with the leaders of the five Sahelian countries. This grouping of African states could in time become a nucleus of a Euro-African alliance to face large and growing challenges, the implications of which could affect the security of European countries, especially given the regional dimensions of the conflict in Libya.  

Pedro Sánchez's decision to attend the first non-virtual summit together with Macron after the deconfination reflects the interest of European countries in strengthening the role that the five countries of the Sahel can play in facing current challenges and threats. This interest is not the result of this Tuesday's summit, but the result of several meetings and encounters that have taken place previously. 

The G5 Sahel countries (Niger, Chad, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali) showed their commitment at the summit in the French town of Pau to address, in addition to the situation in the Sahel region, the fight against terrorist groups active in this region.  

The leaders participating in the summit had to address thorny and interconnected issues such as security and the threat of terrorism together with the European strategy to strengthen and activate the role of the Sahel States. Spain and France have shown a growing interest in the Sahel region, especially France due to its role as a former metropolis whose position is being threatened by the growing involvement of the United States in the affairs of this region. For their part, the leaders of the G5 Sahel countries have been calling for greater involvement of the international community in the problems facing their region; these leaders do welcome the support the United States has shown to their countries.  

In addition to financial support, it is the aid that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia offer to the Sahel States, which increases France's fears of losing control over this grouping of African states and of being disadvantaged in the fight for hegemony in the Maghreb and the Sahel. 

In this context, the G5 leaders of the Sahel have not missed the opportunity of the Nouakchott summit to remind the world of the important cards they can play should the Libyan crisis worsen further, and what this means for the stability and security of the region.  

Through this summit, the leaders of the Sahel have also sought the support of the international community, on the one hand, and, on the other, to call on the international community to become involved and to fulfil its humanitarian responsibilities in Libya, which has become a threat to the region following the Turkish military intervention and the Egyptian threat to use force to protect its borders and to defend what Cairo considers to be strategic interests, in addition to the Russian threat.  

The seriousness of the Libyan situation and the threat it poses to the countries of the Sahel is reflected in the lack of control over arms trafficking in an area where warlords are presented with the opportunity to grow and expand their businesses, with all that this implies not only for French interests in the area, but for European interests in general and the interests of Spain in particular, which is the European country with a common border with Africa. 

But the efforts of the Sahel States, which are pressing from afar to solve the crisis in Libya, are weakened by the divergent positions held by its members with respect to the main actors involved in the conflict. Yet what unites all members of the group is that they support the objectives of the Berlin International Conference to restore security and stability in Libya. 

By addressing the Libyan issue at the Nouakchott Summit, the Sahel leaders have aimed at finding mechanisms to neutralize the threat of the Libyan crisis, while waiting for the international community to reach a solution that would either end the conflict or allow one of the two sides to resolve the war in its favor. 

France and Spain must not forget that establishing solid mechanisms for the new Sahel alliance is essential if that alliance is to be the beginning of a new phase in the fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel and in assuming collective responsibility in this matter.  

France will most likely be present in a new alliance resulting from the Nouakchott summit that includes existing partners, as well as countries and organizations that wish to participate in this alliance. 

The leaders of this future Euro-African alliance will try to create a military force similar to the one created last March by several European and African countries under the name of Takuba Task Force.  

The alliance to be launched in Nouakchott will focus on fighting terrorism and combating extremism and armed groups in the Greater Sahara, as well as strengthening the military capabilities of the countries of the region under the Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel. The leaders of this region make no secret of their strong desire for logistical support for United Nations and European Union training missions and support for the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States. This could be translated into support for States and institutions to work on the ground by strengthening the criminal and judicial institutions essential to restoring the rule of law in the area.  

The Nouakchott summit will be an opportunity to demand that international partners fulfil the commitments made at the end of 2018 during the Nouakchott Donor's Conference and implement the investment programme in the countries of the Sahel.

With all these expectations, challenges cannot be overlooked in this delicate circumstance where the Nouakchott Summit is taking place, amidst enormous difficulties faced by the Sahel States and their allies, which are nothing new but which the present health crisis caused by the coronavirus has made more evident due to the lack of economic resources available to the G5 Sahel.

The problem of financing remains the most important challenge facing the Sahel States. Without sustainable funding, the joint forces will not be able to carry out their tasks of combating terrorism and protecting the borders. 

Moreover, any effort to put an end to terrorism in the area will be ineffective unless development programmes are put in place that are capable of attracting young people and offering job opportunities in the various sectors of the economy to the population concerned in the countries of the Sahel. 

France, which announced weeks ago the death of Al Qaeda's leader in the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droukdel, will not have excluded the possibility of reprisals by the terrorist organisation against its interests and those of its allies.  

With the open confrontation between the different powers in the Libyan conflict and the emergence of a multitude of transcontinental alliances, it seems that Spain, France and Germany feel the importance of strengthening the capacity of the Sahel states to address the challenges and new changes facing the region. This would be a retaining wall against the chaos and war that would threaten Europe's security in a scenario that today does not seem impossible to achieve. 

Lamine Khattari is a Mauritanian journalist