"The fight is not won today," Macron said. Within the next few months, one thing was needed above all: "Clear victories for our armed forces against the terrorists."
In Niger, as with most other countries in the region, few such successes can be claimed.
Jihadi forces have established footholds across the Sahel, in Chad, Mali, and indeed Niger. And the prospects of defeating them and neutralizing their ideology are far from good. At the very least, considerable efforts are required from French and other western troops, together with local forces, to rein in jihadism in the region.
Alternative territory in Africa
Macron's urgent focus on the next six months was no accident. That's because the so-called Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) has recently lost large areas that it used to control in Iraq and Syria. Now it's trying to make up for that lost ground elsewhere, including western Africa. IS fighters in Niger recently showed just how dangerous and combative they can be. Early in October, soldiers from the US and Niger clashed with gunnies associated with IS on the border with Mali. The battle claimed the lives of four US and five Nigerien troops.
IS "has aspirations to establish a larger presence" in Africa, according to US General Joseph Dunford. He said after the October attack that the US military would make recommendations to President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis "for the allocation of forces that meet what we see as the threat, what we anticipate the threat to be." Republican Senator
Lindsey Graham... the endangered South Carolina RINO, fellow maverick of Honest John McCain...
found more blunt words: "The war is morphing. We're going to see more actions in Africa, not less."