The EU and the G5 Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad) will meet on Tuesday 28 April by videoconference to strengthen their strategic partnership for security, stability and development.
The summit, which was due to take place in Brussels on 26 March in the margins of the European Council meeting, could not be held because of the crisis linked to the COVID-19 outbreak (see EUROPE 12407/2).
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the current President of the G5 Sahel, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, will co-chair this EU-G5 Sahel videoconference, in which the United Nations and the African Union Commission will participate. Similarly, the European Commission had been represented at the last G5 Sahel meeting in Nouakchott (Mauritania, late February), which had been dominated by terrorism issues (see EUROPE 12435/2).
The five countries of the Sahel, a region facing terrorism by jihadist groups, traffickers and poverty, are a strategic priority for the EU. As the security situation continues to give cause for concern, it will be necessary to strengthen European action, primarily in the security field, but also in the humanitarian and development fields, in accordance with the three pillars of the EU’s holistic strategy for the Sahel, which was revised in 2014 but is due for renewal.
The two sides should agree to strengthen their common commitment to a series of initiatives and policy frameworks such as the Sahel Coalition, the Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel and the G5 Sahel Integrated Framework for Priority Actions.
They should also discuss their shared objectives for the security and stability of the Sahel. The follow-up to the Pau summit of 14 January, which laid the foundations for a strengthened mobilisation against jihadist groups with the creation of an international coalition (see EUROPE 12403/20), or the EU missions in the G5 Sahel countries could be addressed.
In the area of development, the aim is to restore State authority and basic services in vulnerable areas, invest in local development and job creation for young people, strengthen the fight against climate change and intensify cooperation in the fight against COVID-19. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang with Camille-Cerise Gessant)