Algeria has reaffirmed its opposition to foreign intervention in the Sahel and Sahara regions under the pretext of fighting terrorism, General Said Chanegriha, Chief of Staff of the People's National Army (ANP), said in a statement on Sunday.
During a meeting with senior officers of the North African republic's land forces command, the top military official argued that recent events in the region have confirmed the total failure of using foreign intervention in the fight against extremist organizations.
Chanegriha emphasized Algeria's commitment to giving new momentum to regional efforts to combat terrorism in the Sahel and Sahara region. He welcomed President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's recent statement that Algeria will spare no effort to support its neighbors and other African countries in their struggle against terrorism and extremism.
"The initiative put forward by Algeria is aimed at giving a new dynamism to counter-terrorism efforts in the Sahel-Sahara region, approved in October 2022 by the member states of the Joint Operational General Staff Committee (CEMOC), which includes Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger," General Chanegriha said, as quoted by local media.
In late-March, Algeria's leader Tebboune announced that his country was contributing at the continental level to the development of a new action plan for the African Union in the field of combating terrorism, including the activation of an African fund on the matter.
President Tebboune, in his capacity as the coordinator of the African Union on combating terrorism and violent extremism on the continent, after addressing the UN Security Council during a high-level meeting to discuss terrorism and how to root out this scourge from Africa, pointed to the alarming development caused by the terrorist threat to the continent over the last decade.
The Sahel region has been grappling with terrorist groups Since 2011. Various efforts have been undertaken to stamp out this menace plaguing the continent. The African Union and the G5 Sahel Joint Force have been working to address the root causes of terrorism and enhance law enforcement cooperation.
The AU has a regional counter-terrorism strategy that aims to address the underlying causes of terrorism, prevent radicalization, and enhance law enforcement cooperation. The G5 Sahel Joint Force was established in 2017, bringing together the military forces of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger to combat this regional scourge.
In the same vein, in 2014, France launched a military operation dubbed Barkhane as a follow-up to a 2013 operation known as Serval in Sahel under the pretext of fighting terrorism. However, in 2022, after almost a decade of French military presence in the area, experts insist that the situation had only worsened, with Mali, among the nations most impacted by the Jihadist insurgency, accusing Paris of supporting the terrorists.
Despite all ongoing efforts, the region remains vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and more needs to be done to combat this threat, according to experts.