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France-led Takuba combined task force has a long way to go

来源:China Military Online 责任编辑:Chen Zhuo
2020-04-03 19:38:57

Paratroops from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, part of the French Foreign Legion, patrolling with Malian Armed Forces in Ménaka, Mali. Image: @2REPOfficiel/Twitter

By Fang Xiaozhi

The frequent and escalated terrorist attacks and armed conflicts in the Sahel region of western Africa have captured close attention in the international community. On March 28, French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly announced that at the request of the Malian and Nigerian authorities, eleven European countries, including France, will form a new task force called "Takuba", an alliance of European special forces within the framework of (military operation – ed.) Barkhan, which will join forces with Mali and Niger to combat terrorist forces in the Sahel region of West Africa.

In fact, the international community has been seeking cooperation to jointly tackle terrorism in the Sahel, where, however, the anti-terror efforts haven’t proved effective due to the excessively complicated regional security situation and the entwined traditional and non-traditional security threats. As a result, the security situation in the Sahel region has kept worsening, with terrorist activities unabated and new terrorist organizations emerging and spreading. This has been fully proved by the recent escalation of terrorist attacks and armed conflicts in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Once being its suzerain, France has always taken Africa as its backyard and paid close attention to the security situation and anti-terror operations there. Apart from assigning troops and working with G5 Sahel and other regional organizations, France has also advocated “shared responsibilities”, trying to get other western countries on-board for broad supports. The 13-nation combined task force formed at France’s initiative is an important outcome of its persistent efforts to get the international community to intensify cooperation against terrorism in West Africa.

According to the plan, the Takuba combined task force will be combat-ready in the coming summer and formally carry out military operations early next year. But a slew of restrictions has determined that the process of forming the task force will be a tough journey strewn with uncertainties.

First, military anti-terror operations alone won’t guarantee the security and stability in the region. The Sahel region in West Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world, featuring serious internal strife, backward economy, complicated ethnic and religious conflicts, and sustained turmoil. The reasons behind such a chaotic situation are extremely complex and the rampant terrorism is just an embodiment rather than the root cause. A comprehensive combination of governance approaches is needed in the region. The establishment of Takuba to crack down on terrorist forces with military operations may take some short-term effect, but cannot achieve lasting peace and stability in the region.

Second, the combined task force consists of troops from 13 countries, which are bound to diverge on several topics, ranging from troops composition, weaponry and equipment, operational support and intelligence collection, to the coordination with G5 Sahel troops and the UN peacekeepers. Whether they can address these divergences effectively is yet to be seen. Besides, as the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading quickly across the globe, the world economy will see a sustained period of contraction. Under such circumstances, the sharing of expenses may be another important factor that will hinder Takuba’s effective operation.

At last, the US policy will affect the combined task force’s anti-terror operations in the Sahel region. Although Paris is leading the joint counter-terrorism operations in the region, it does receive intelligence and logistics assistance from the US. Trump has vowed repeatedly to cut America’s military presence in Africa and the Middle East and to intensify military deployments on the homeland and in the Indo-Pacific region since he came in power. If Washington withdrew from Africa and the anti-terror cooperation with other countries there, that would surely undermine the effectiveness of the combined task force’s operations.

In general, the France-led Takuba combined task force is a useful attempt by the international community to counter terrorism and achieve security and stability in West Africa’s Sahel region. However, due to the aforementioned restrictions, there is still a long way to go before the task force will be established and deployed as planned, and it will achieve substantial results in fighting terrorist forces in the Sahel region.

(Fang Xiaozhi, a researcher at the BRI Institute of Strategy and International Security, Fudan University)