(Adnkronos) – The Sahel is “a priority” for Italy and needs a greater European presence to help stabilise the coup-hit region and shield civilians from worsening security threats posed by a growing Islamist militant presence, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.
“We need to boost our presence, which Italy is doing,” Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.
“That part of Africa cannot become the object of neo-colonial interest on the part of Russia, China and Iran,” Tajani said, recalling his visit to Mauritania, Senegal and Niger in late October with interior minister Matteo Piantedosi.
Tajani and Piantedosi’s visit to the three Sahel countries was “to reiterate the importance of a European and Italian presence,” Tajani underlined.
“That is why we have decided to maintain our military mission in Niger to train the Nigerien army and why we believe we must support the government in Niger, but also in (neighbouring) Mali,” he said.
“Mali is caught in a vice between the Islamic State other jihadist militants,” Tajani said.
The Sahel region is on the agenda at the FAC meeting and ministers were set to debate a new strategic approach to the Sahel proposed by EU special representative Joao Cravinho.
Cravinho’s blueprint follows EU disengagement in the Sahel after the military coups since 2020 in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where civilian have been imperilled by the closure of most EU military and capacity-building missions, the freezing of much development aid, increasingly brutal conflicts between Islamist armed groups and government forces and deepening repression.
