(CN) — More than seven years after France sent thousands of troops to fight an insurgency against Mali's central government in the impoverished sandy hinterlands of the Sahel in Africa, France has become embroiled in what increasingly looks like an endless and expanding Afghanistan-like war, experts say.
“There is no clear exit strategy to it,” said Morten Bøås, a researcher on the Sahel at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, in a telephone interview. “It is very hard to see how the situation has improved.”
There are more than 4,500 French troops in the Sahel, the vast semiarid region at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert where France once held colonial sway. Alongside the armies of Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, French soldiers are fighting motorcycle-riding armed groups of jihadists and insurgents. The main groups are affiliated with the Islamic State — such as Boko Haram — and al-Qaeda.
With the conflict getting worse and the loss of 13 soldiers in a midair helicopter crash in November, France says it's sending in about 600 more troops. In addition, there are about 17,000 soldiers in the region serving on a United Nations peacekeeping mission and about 1,000 U.S. soldiers who mainly provide intelligence and logistics aid to the French. The United States, though, is considering removing many of its troops in Africa so it can focus on China, leaving the fight to the French.
The objective, French military leaders say, is to prevent jihadists from establishing control of the region. Europe also sees the chaos in the Sahel as a major factor in pushing thousands of people to seek refuge in Europe, a phenomenon that has upended European politics and boosted the rise of xenophobic far-right political parties.
Over the past year, the situation in the Sahel has dramatically worsened as insurgent attacks grow, casualties mount and the tide of dislocation widens.
Last year about 4,000 people were killed in the conflict and in recent months more than 230 African soldiers have been killed. An estimated 765,000 people are displaced from their homes in Burkina Faso and 208,000 in Mali. There are an estimated 26,670 Malian refugees, too. The war has killed more than 40 French soldiers and wounded many others.
In recent years jihadists have attacked villages, police barracks, military bases and hotels where Westerners stay. The French embassy in Burkina Faso was attacked in 2018. People seen as collaborating with the French are targeted for death. For example, a Malian farmer recently interviewed on French television was killed after he spoke out against jihadists.
Undeterred, the French carry on.
It's set up army bases and opened civilian radio stations. It flies supplies in on hulking transport planes and runs a fleet of military helicopters. Heavily armed and protected French troops conduct patrols in the desert landscape of the Sahel; they train African soldiers at remote camps surrounded by sand and emptiness; and they attack rebel groups in remote and desolate villages. In December, France announced its first-ever drone strike, killing about 40 suspected fighters in Mali.
But France's military mission faces growing criticism as an imperialistic enterprise and has sparked protests in Africa.
“The French approach to the Sahel is extremely ineffective,” said Arezki Daoud, a chief analyst at MEA Risk and the editor of the North Africa Journal, in an email.
He said the French military campaign hasn't stopped the terrorist attacks, likely pushed the conflict beyond Mali and worsened relations between ethnic groups and communities.