Morocco Emerges as Key Ally in France’s Sahel Counter-Terrorism Efforts

It is by analyzing the issues of the G5 summit, which opened this Monday in the city of Pau, that the researcher emphasized that "thanks to its religious legitimacy, Morocco is conducting an intelligent policy in the region and on the fringes of the Sahelo-Saharan arc". Originally scheduled for December 16, the summit had been postponed following the deadly attack by the Nigerien army in the Inates camp, which left 71 dead and about thirty missing.

According to the scientist, Mohammed VI has the strength and the means to "counter the bellicose and fanatical literalism of the Islamic State", since as "Commander of the Faithful, he promotes the artistic, philosophical and strictly spiritual dimensions of Islam", reports the MAP.

In his analysis, Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier showed that by striving to promote one of the most important brotherhoods in West Africa, the Tijaniyya, whose founder’s mausoleum is located in Fez, "Morocco is working to establish itself as the leader of a religious current based on wasatiyya and likely to counter radical discourses". For him, it is important to support such a policy and to let it be led by "the representatives of an Islam that is both rooted and traditional, primarily concerned with the salvation of their co-religionists".

Moreover, it is the multiplication of jihadist attacks in the Sahel that is at the origin of the meeting initiated by Emmanuel Macron in Pau, which brings together five presidents of the region, namely: Idriss Déby Itno of Chad, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali and Mohamed ould Cheikh El Ghazouani of Mauritania.

This summit will also host the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, the President of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrel.

According to the Élysée, this Pau summit will "re-evaluate the framework and objectives of the French commitment in the Sahel. It will also lay the foundations for increased international support for the Sahel countries," the same source specifies.