UN human rights chief says the underlying problem in Mali is poverty: Au Sahel, la fin du djihadisme passera aussi par la lutte contre la pauvreté et les inégalités (Bachelet
Meanwhile with the US threatening withdrawal, an article in the New York Times underlines the dilemma facing the French Operation Barkhane in the western Sahel: fighting an unwinnable war but unable to leave. As ICG analyst Hannah Armstrong puts it: “In the same way that French reality TV and pop music is 15 years behind the U.S., French counterterrorism mimics U.S. counterterrorism of 15 years ago. In the Sahel, the Americans have already realized this is a losing battle.”