France seeks ‘Sahelization’ of African conflict Khaled Abou Zahr French soldiers set up camp in Ndaki, Mali, as part of Operation Barkhane. (Reuters) Short Url https://arab.news/pu27f In a dull and simple way, one could say that the Sahel region is to France what Afghanistan is to the US. There are obviously many differences, but both countries are engaged in a long-term, high-cost military campaign fighting Islamist insurgents in an effort to avoid any terrorist actions destabilizing an entire region: Western Africa for France, Central Asia for the US. In both cases, and despite the necessity of the task, these interventions have grown unpopular both domestically and regionally on many levels. Also, in both cases, it had seemed until recently that these were undeclared “forever wars,” from which they would never be able to extract themselves while supporting local allies without a risk of serious regional political instability, as well as the risk of terrorism in their own country or their sovereign representations worldwide.