The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) , is a military alliance, based in Brussels with 30 European and North American countries. (credit: wikipedia  commons) 

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Despite the presence of thousands of UN peacekeepers and foreign troops, terror and violent attacks linked to militant Islamic groups in the Africa SAHEL  region have increased dramatically during the past few years. There are nearly 22,000 troops in the Sahel, but they have yet to succeed in stopping the Islamist insurgency.  Terrorist-attack casualties in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger  have leapt five-fold since 2016 – with more than 4,000 deaths reported in 2019 alone as compared to some 770 three years earlier.   In March of this year,  the American Secretary of State Michael Pompeo appointed Dr. J. Peter Pham as the first-ever U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel region of Africa to maximize diplomatic efforts in support of stability amid the unprecedented surge in terror attacks.  Still, just last month,  at least 12 Malian soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack in the central Mopti region of the west African nation.  And in  July, a soldier of the French force Operation Barkhane in the west Africa Sahel was killed   in the region of Gossi, in the center of Mali, during fighting against armed terrorist groups,  the Elysee and the French Army announced at the time. 

13 French Soldiers Killed in Helicopter Collision in Mali

Last November 2019,  two helicopters collided in midair and killed 13 French soldiers fighting Islamic extremists in Mali,  France said, in its biggest loss since its mission in West Africa’s Sahel region began in 2013.

With more than 4,000 deaths in 2019 alone in the Sahel, what does this say about the efficiency and effectiveness of the thousands of UN and international troops there?

NATO Could Play  Crucial Role in Fighting  Armed Terrorist Groups in Sahel

“Many NATO members have pledged support in various ways (the US also operates a Sahelian security effort based in Niger), yet there is little in the way of collective NATO engagements. Support from NATO, whose members account for 70% of global defense spending, would hardly be unprecedented. In this millennium, NATO has trained Iraqi soldiers to increase capacity against the Taliban, and has deployed to the Gulf of Aden to counter piracy and stabilize the region, both similar in scope to potential Sahel missions. In the Sahel, they could use their comparative advantage relative to other organizations and increase the response’s robustness and efficiency.”

-Ethan Schwartz,    –A Case for NATO in the Sahel-

Schwartz goes on to write that:  “A crucial role for NATO could be eliminating funding to terrorist groups. NATO can employ its vast intelligence resources to identify and disrupt funding sources from abroad, while physically securing resources known to be income sources for terrorists in the Sahel. NATO’s role can expand beyond the combat domain by utilizing its vast resources and supply chains to coordinate the logistics of the international humanitarian and development response, allowing development agencies to allocate more resources to more acute development needs.”

Writing in the NATO REVIEW  December 2012,  Paul Pryce, in his piece titled: Securing the Sahel: A role for NATO?  , Pryce warned of the growing, deadly terror threat in the Sahel:

“Indeed, if NATO is to positively influence events in the Sahel, the Alliance must act quickly. The shocking and tragic attack by an al-Qaeda affiliated group on an Algerian gas facility near In Aménas demonstrates the potential for regional conflicts to deepen and spread beyond Mali’s territory.  It is in this role of ‘deep’ conflict resolution that NATO could make an immensely valuable contribution, utilizing mediation to prevent al-Qaeda from establishing a lasting foothold in the region while averting a protracted military conflict, at the same time expending minimal Alliance resource.”

Pryce added:  “At the same time, one of the most pressing moral challenges the Alliance will be confronted with in the coming year is whether NATO can render tangible assistance to one of the most impoverished and imperilled regions of the world. The awful events near In Aménas indicate what is now at stake.”

Indeed,  flash forward 7 years after Pryce wrote that article, the world has seen what is at stake in the Sahel.   Today, terrorists and other groups in West Africa and the Sahel are seeking to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine state authority and destabilize government with stepped up attacks in the region.  Mohammed Ibn Chambas, head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS),   recently briefed Security Council  members on the situation in West Africa and the  Sahel.    Chambas said that despite “intense and sustained” efforts by concerned countries, violent extremists continue to attack security forces and civilians alike, with children recruited into fighting in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. Presenting his latest report, the UNOWAS chief described security conditions as “extremely volatile”.  In Burkina Faso alone, as of June, 921,000 people have been forced to flee, representing a 92 per cent rise over 2019 figures.