Last Wednesday France, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad decided to increase military collaboration and strategic cooperation in the face of the growing security crisis that affects the Sahel region. The Sahel, a semi-arid stretch of land separating the end of the Sahara desert and the beginning of the African rainforests, has been in turmoil since 2012, when a number of Islamist separatist groups started targeting the local populations in Mali. As a result of the growing tensions, France decided to send a military convoy of 4,500 soldiers in 2013 to try prevent the separatist forces from reaching Bamako, Mali’s capital. Moreover, the UN deployed over 13,000 peacekeeping forces in the region. However, the French presence has not been able to prevent the situation from spinning out of control, as tensions have spread throughout the region, especially to Burkina Faso and Niger. Since the crisis began, thousands of people have been killed and more than one million people have been displaced.

The meeting, which took place in the French city of Pau, summoned the presence of Emmanuel Macron, Mali’s Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Burkina Faso’s Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou, Mauritania’s Mohamed Ould Ghazouani and Chad’s Idriss Deby. Pau was not a random choice to host the summit, as seven of the 13 French soldiers who died in a helicopter accident (the worst military blow to France in over four decades) were from the city in south-west France. Four main goals were established for the summit: assess whether further foreign military presence would help improve the situation; appeal to the continued strategic presence of the United States in the region (Donald Trump has repeatedly hinted that the U.S. might withdraw its strategic presence from Africa in his effort to reduce state department activities); enhance cooperation between the countries in terms of humanitarian aid and state building projects; and raise international awareness towards the growing security crisis in order to get more European countries involved in its solution.

There are several reasons that explain the incapacity of the international troops to contain the insurgent groups and the increase of casualties all over the region. Firstly, the large stretches of dry, arid land that separate the countries in the Sahel make it very difficult to establish clear, enforced borders, allowing insurgent Islamist groups to freely permeate large areas of land (recruiting people for their cause, establishing drug and weapon trafficking activities and enforcing their political and religious agendas). The failure of these countries to provide proper education, healthcare and job opportunities also provides the perfect void for these radical groups to raise support and recruit militants. Prolonged droughts caused by climate change have sparked ethnic tensions between different groups (herders and pastoralists) within these countries (Mali especially), increasing the risk of ethnic violence while also forcing local populations to flee the area in search of water and food. Finally, the deployment of national security forces has not always helped foster trust among local populations as several crimes against human rights have been committed and hundreds of people have been killed in their operations. It is therefore clear that the deployment of more troops alone will not provide long term solutions.

France’s presence in the region has not always been welcome, as it is seen by some as a pursuit of its neocolonial interests. The Friday prior to the meeting, hundreds of people gathered in Bamako to express their rejection to foreign presence in their country shouting “Down with France, Barkhane must leave” and “France is a brake on our development,” according to Aljazeera. These anti-French sentiments have sparked some tensions among the French government and their Sahel counterparts. In the words of Macron “I see opposition movements, groups, who denounce the French presence as a neocolonial, imperialist. I am loath to send soldiers to countries where our presence is not clearly wanted.” While it is completely understandable that people in these regions fear the increasing presence of a country whose colonial history created many of the problems that continue to plague the region, it is also clear that international presence in terms of troops and investment is needed to improve these countries’ capacities to develop long term peace-building strategies.

What is taking place in the Sahel region could serve as a case study for future conflicts. In a region plagued by droughts and the relentless effects of climate change, a number of countries have been unable to properly develop their state institutions,  creating a power void that has allowed violent Islamist groups to wreak havoc. More international presence will be needed in the region, not just in terms of military troops, but also in terms of financial aid, civil society construction and state development. Other European countries should follow suit. They cannot continue to close their borders while neglecting these countries. They cannot have it both ways.