Sahel: Washington gets involved more and more

By on January 13, 2011
After the murder of the two French, abducted in Niger, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and President Barack Obama showed their unity against the terrorist threat.

Although Paris and Washington share common goals – namely to protect their interests against terrorist risks – their actions are separate and run in parallel. However, there are now strengthening their cooperation. This cooperation is designed to help the French and American diplomats to obtain information from areas where they are not necessarily well established. France and the United States have different allies in North Africa and West Africa. For example, Washington is actively cooperating with Algeria which is, however, reluctant to work with Paris.
The position of the United States has recently changed on this issue. The UN Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has indeed managed to convince them that drug trafficking and terrorism were often linked. Now top U.S. diplomats and experts are involved increasingly in the fight against terrorism in North Africa, a region where it previously was not interested. Finally, Paris has won the bid in attracting the US to be more involved in the Saharan and Sub-Saharan regions’ issues, and to be more likely heard than before.

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