The termination of French Operation Barkhane in Sahel and withdrawal of French military personnel from Mali may provoke a surge of terrorist activity which the countries of the region are not able to cope with by themselves, said Director of International Organizations Department of Russian Foreign Ministry Petr Ilyichev in an interview with RIA Novosti.
"The key to strengthening security in the Sahel is in Mali. The gradual winding down of Operation Barkhane by Paris, accompanied by the withdrawal of the French military from three military bases in Tessalit, Kidal and Timbuktu, could provoke a serious surge of terrorist activity in the country, with the potential to destabilize the entire subregion. "At the same time, neither the joint forces of the Sahel Five, which includes Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad, nor the European Takuba mission have sufficient capacity to fully repel this threat," said Ilyichev.
He noted that the Sahara-Sahel region remains one of the most unstable in Africa, including because of the influx of fighters and weapons after the collapse of statehood in Libya as a result of Western military intervention in 2011.
"Taking advantage of weak state authority, internal political and socio-economic problems and inter-ethnic tensions, the terrorist international is stepping up its subversive activities there," the senior diplomat said.
Ilyichev also said that Russia will continue to provide military and military-technical assistance to Mali through state lines.
"Russia and Mali are linked by long-standing friendly relations, the beginning of which dates back to the time of the USSR. We will continue to protect the legitimate interests of Bamako at the UN, as well as provide active military and military-technical assistance to the Malian partners through the state," he said.
The diplomat noted that Russia is not planning to send peacekeepers to the UN mission for stabilization of the situation in Mali.
He explained that potentially such a decision could be taken by the Russian authorities and implemented in cooperation with the secretariat of the world organization.
"The UN Security Council is responsible for the strategic aspects of peacekeeping missions, the development of mandates and determining their numerical composition. Decisions on sending national contingents to missions are not the responsibility of the UN Security Council," Ilyichev added.
In 2014, France launched Operation Barkhane, an anti-terrorist operation in the region. The mission is supported by the regional structure of the G5, established the same year. The goal of the operation in the Sahara-Sahel region (Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad) is to combat terrorism and stabilize the situation to the point where local authorities can ensure security themselves. In the summer of 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris would change the model of its military presence in the Sahel: Operation Barkhane in its current form would end and be replaced by an international alliance that would include countries in the region and other partners.
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Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from RIA Novosti