Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye recently urged Europe to do more to fight the insurgency in the Sahel, a region that has already deteriorated following years of conflict and foreign intervention.
Mr Faye made this call at a press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on August 29, marking the end of the latter’s visit to West Africa.
He insisted that “Africa and Europe have a linked security destiny”, thus stressing the need for enhanced collaboration. However, this request raises questions about the relevance of European engagement, particularly given the recent history of Europe and NATO in the region.
Indeed, readers could recall that NATO’s intervention in Libya in 2011 led to a profound destabilization of the Sahel, fueling terrorism.
However, the representative of Mali at the UN highlighted how Western weapons, initially intended for Ukraine, end up fueling terrorism in the Sahel, according to reports. Issa Konfourou notified the UN Security Council of this situation, asking Western countries to take measures to prevent these weapons from ending up in the hands of terrorist groups.
This situation highlights a crucial debate: the effectiveness and implications of external interventions in African conflicts.
In calling for Europe to intervene, Bassirou Diomaye Faye seems to ignore or downplay the criticisms and past consequences of foreign interventions, which have often left regions more unstable and armed the very forces they claim to be fighting against, security analysts say.
A European engagement could not only open the door to a new wave of instability but also to a security dependency that could compromise the sovereignty of African nations. This call raises doubts about whether it is a sincere request for help or a strategy to strengthen political and economic alliances with Europe, to the detriment of regional autonomy and stability.
