“It is a mistake to say so”: for the Minister of the Armed Forces, the operation “Barkhane” is “not a failure”

“Our army has never stopped pushing back terrorist groups in the Sahel, saving thousands of lives on the spot and protecting the French from threats of attack on our land. Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Monday refuted the failure of Operation Barkhane in response to an open letter from about a hundred senators addressed to French President Emmanuel Macron.

“Today Niger, yesterday Mali, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso rejected France, French troops, French companies,” emphasize the senators of the Republic of Lithuania Roger Karuchi, Bruno Retaio and Christian Cambon in their letter, signed by 94 parliamentarians and published by Le Figaro. “At our expense, after the failure of the Barkhane operation, here are the militias (from the Russian group) Wagner, not very fastidious in matters of human rights or democracy, but quite accessible to all dictators or leaders who remain in power, uniting their population against the former colonial power, ”they lament.

“It’s wrong to say that”

“I cannot say that Operation Barkhan was refusal “Sébastien Lecornu reacted to a statement sent to journalists on Monday evening. “Our army has constantly pushed back terrorist groups in the Sahel, saving thousands of lives on the spot and protecting the French from threats of attack on our land,” he continued.

“The dune was not a failure: it would be a mistake to talk about it,” said Sebastien Lecornu, while emphasizing that “of course, lessons can be learned from this, both for all crises and for all military operations.”

Operation Serval, launched in January 2013 against jihadist groups that had captured northern Mali and threatened to move further south, was replaced in August 2014 by Operation Barkhane, directed against jihadists scattered across the countries of the Sahel-Sahara strip. President Emmanuel Macron officially announced the end of the operation last November.