A series of attacks March 2 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, illustrate the seriousness of this cancer spreading through the Sahel. Nearly half — 1,700 of 4,000 — of those soldiers are in Mali, by far France’s major military operation abroad. France is short of the $500 million needed every year to keep the G5 military operation running. However, senior Algerian security officials and diplomats hold firm to the argument that the challenges in the Sahel cannot be solved by using a hammer. While the key principles of Algerian security and foreign affairs are well-established, the battle that rages around his succession makes the country’s foreign policy decisions difficult to read for outsiders.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 03, 2018 15:45 UTC