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The 8th edition of the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa ended on Tuesday, following two days of discussions largely dominated by the jihadist advance in West Africa. France 24 returns to the key points raised during this two-day meeting in the Senegalese capital.
African Heads of State, international partners, representatives of the army and civil society… Several hundred participants gathered on October 24 and 25 at the Dakar Forum on Peace and Security in Africa.
Dominated once more this year by the security crisis and democracy in West Africa, this eighth edition was an opportunity for the Senegalese leader Macky Sall, current chairman of the African Union, to call for a reform of international institutions to include African representation but also to clarify the continent’s position vis-à-vis Ukraine.
To analyze the stakes of this summit, France 24 spoke with Niagalé Bagayoko, doctor in political science and specialist in security issues in the Sahel, who participated in the forum.
During the closing speech, the Senegalese Minister of Foreign Affairs Aïssata Tall Sall insisted that it was primarily up to African States to develop solutions to combat terrorism on their soil and not to international partners. In your opinion, does this approach mark a turning point?
Niagale Bagayoko : Indeed, the question of the security sovereignty of African States was very widely put forward during this forum. This discourse is part of a desire, increasingly present on the continent, to break away from the traditional alliances inherited from colonization in order to ensure that the interests of African states prevail in the first place.
This is clearly an evolution of doctrine. At the first forums, African participants called for commitment from international partners on the continent. Today, they are asking them to show solidarity by providing them with logistical and financial support.
It is not a question of breaking with the partners whose support remains very important in the current context, particularly in West Africa where the terrorist threat is gaining ground. But the African states are now asserting their desire to take action. Because in the meantime, external operations, whether those of France, Europe or the UN have shown their limits.
Macky Sall pleaded for a reform of global governance to involve Africa and an “update” of the doctrine of peacekeeping operations “fully integrating the fight once morest terrorism”. Do these demands seem realistic to you? ?
This criticism aimed at UN peacekeeping operations is not new. Many African heads of state consider this force insufficiently effective and would like blue helmets to be officially authorized to fight terrorists. Its effectiveness on the ground is certainly limited, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians, but the UN is not an army of war. Blue helmets are mobilized on the ground to promote the implementation of peace agreements. To do this, they must maintain a posture of neutrality and impartiality, which is incompatible with the fight once morest terrorism.
Regarding Macky Sall’s request to include Africa among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, the idea seems interesting to me. Because this body was set up at the end of the Second World War, fifteen years before African independence. During this period, Africans were therefore associated with the colonial powers, which of course no longer applies. The major difficulty is that the African States would now have to manage to agree on the choice of a representative. However, rivalries persist between the biggest powers of the continent such as South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.
During the forum, the French Secretary of State Chrysoula Zacharopoulou pleaded for the continent’s “solidarity” with Europeans in the face of the Russian offensive once morest Ukraine. In response Macky sall affirmed that Africa was “not once morest Ukraine”. How was this call from France perceived?
The intervention of the Secretary of State was perceived as clumsy and unwelcome. The speech was widely interpreted as an injunction to adopt the European reading, even by some as a reproach or a condemnation.
It must be said that this request is difficult to hear at a time when more and more African States are rightly claiming their right to multiply international partners, without taking sides.
I nevertheless find that Macky Sall’s clarification was necessary because it is true that we sometimes had the impression that Africa did not perceive the war in ukraine only through African interests. The countries of the continent can choose not to actively support Ukraine, but they must, at a minimum, express empathy for the suffering of the populations.
Moreover, the alleged disparity in treatment between Ukraine and Africa, mentioned several times during the forum, seems very out of place to me. Admittedly, the EU has promised eight billion euros to Ukraine, but it has also invested billions in the fight once morest terrorism in the Sahel. Operation Barkhane alone cost France one billion a year. Same for the UN force in Mali. This purely accounting comparison is in my opinion not justified.
