Togo : La France s'inquiète du « risque terroriste » en Afrique de l'Ouest
France is concerned about the "terrorist risk" in West Africa, a "common concern" with Togo, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Friday in Lomé, following a meeting with his counterpart Robert Dussey.
Violence perpetrated by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State has plagued the Sahel for a decade and is now spreading to the north of coastal countries like Togo. This situation comes a few years after the withdrawal of the French army, engaged in the fight against jihadists, a withdrawal demanded by the military regimes of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
This is the first official French visit of such a high level to Togo in ten years, a former French colony and one of Paris's few allies in the region, although the country is simultaneously forging ties with Russia.
“We share a common concern, which is the security of the sub-region and, of course, the terrorist threat that we all want to curb and contain,” Jean-Noël Barrot told the press. “France supports regional initiatives to contain this scourge and enable the countries of the sub-region to fully assume their security and sovereignty,” he added, on the second and final day of his visit.
Upon arriving in Lomé on Thursday evening, Mr. Barrot immediately met with President Faure Gnassingbé, notably praising Togo's role as a mediator on the continent. He reiterated this on Friday: in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ravaged by conflict, "Togo plays a leading role in directing African mediation, the only approach capable of bringing lasting solutions to this crisis."
"This is also true, I know, in the Sahel region" where "you play a pivotal role in, once again, finding concerted solutions at the regional level to combat the rise of the terrorist risk," he specified.
He also mentioned the "benefits of cooperation between France and Togo in the fields of health, digital technology," and heritage and remembrance. Furthermore, the minister believes that France's major summit on the African continent, Africa Forward, in Nairobi in May, will be "an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of the renewed partnerships forged between African countries and France."
Robert Dussey, for his part, praised "a man of his word" and a "great minister." "The last time a French Foreign Minister made an official working visit to Togo was in 2002," he recalled.
AFP
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