G5 and terrorist groups: Chad withdraws amid absolute international support for Sahel countries

Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar

Terrorist organizations have been able to find a foothold in all geographical areas of the world, relying on different systems and policies, whether through geographical occupation, lone wolves, or other strategies that do not differentiate between one society and another. There are even societies affected by terrorist operations despite the high rate of peaceful coexistence among its members, as is the case in New Zealand.

Africa has not been far from the hands of terrorist organizations that spread in several parts of the continent, especially the Sahel region, where these extremist organizations took advantage of poverty and the deteriorating economic and social conditions as a major catalyst to increase their expansion.

Sahel and security cooperation

The Sahel region in West Africa consists of five countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad). Despite having many benefits, these countries face multiple challenges, including population increase and the effects of global warming, but the most dangerous thing facing these countries is the growing terrorist threat and the presence of terrorist organizations that have taken advantage of the situation in these countries.

With the spread of terrorist organizations, the heads of state of the Sahel countries established what is known as the G5 Sahel Group in 2014, to serve as a nucleus for governmental cooperation between these countries on the one hand and the international powers on the other, with the aim of coordinating activities among them.

In 2017, the G5 Sahel Group established its Joint Military Force for Security Cooperation, coinciding with the creation of the Alliance for the Sahel, which initially began with only the European Union, France and Germany, and then came to comprise of 25 military, intelligence and financial partners. The international coalition announced that it would initially focus on development aid for the five countries and coordination among them, with the aim of accelerating the implementation of development activities for the entire population.

The United Nations Security Council approved the formation of the joint transnational force that was approved by the heads of the five countries in the G5 in its Resolution 2359 of June 21, 2017, and this UN resolution received clear and significant support from France, and the African Union Peace and Security Council also supported this force.

This internationally backed joint military force forcefully conducted its first military operations in November 2017, after defining its objectives in combating terrorism, transnational organized crime and human trafficking in the countries under its jurisdiction.

The military force includes seven battalions spread over three areas. At the beginning of its establishment, it included 5,000 military personnel from different countries and relied on several stages of deployment, and it also included important intelligence support from Western countries.

Chad withdraws its soldiers

Abdel Rahman Kalamallah, spokesman for the Chadian government, announced that his country will divide its forces in the border triangle between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso within the G5 Sahel force into two parts, with 600 soldiers to be withdrawn.

“We have redeployed 600 soldiers to Chad in agreement with the forces of the G5 Sahel nations. It is a strategic redeployment to better adapt to the terrorist organizations, and a battalion of 1,200 Chadian soldiers was deployed in this region to confront the jihadist groups within the framework of the G5 Sahel force, which has been seeking cooperation in this regard since 2017,” Kalamallah said.

“We have about 600 soldiers left on the ground. It is a decision that has been consulted for a long time with the leadership of the G5 Sahel force. We wanted to relieve many who were not adapting,” he added.

The area where the Chadian forces are deployed, known as the Triangle Border region, is one of the areas most exposed to terrorist attacks, where thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed. The strength of terrorist organizations in this region is due to their association with al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Greater Sahara.

Step back

Despite Kalamallah’s statements to AFP that the step of withdrawing Chadian soldiers from this region is a strategic step that has been consulted about, there are many doubts about this scenario.

One of the Niger villages located within this burning border triangle was subjected to a terrorist attack on Saturday, August 21, which resulted in the killing of ten civilians, and then it was quickly attacked again on Monday, August 23, which resulted in 37 civilians being killed.

Observers believe that the main reason behind the Chadian withdrawal was the attack carried out by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region in early August, where AFP reported, quoting a local official, that the attack killed at least 24 soldiers.