Munich, 17 February 2018
Today, President Kagame, who is attending the three-day Munich Security Conference in Germany, participated in a panel discussion titled, “Securing the Sahel.”
The Sahel region security situation deteriorated following the Libya crisis of 2011, the Mali Crisis of 2012 and the Boko Haram insurgency, which exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities.
Speaking on the panel, President Kagame said: “There are many efforts whether by the UN, Sahel or EU on fixing the Sahel security situation – the key point is not the number of people contributing but rather how do they all coordinate so that there no overlaps and wasted resources.”
President Kagame further called on world leaders to fully empower and support the people directly concerned with the Sahel problem.
“It’s a complex problem but I believe it is not insurmountable if we can do the right things in the right way in the right time,” President Kagame said.
Since 2014, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad established the G5 Joint Military Force for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) to fight regional insecurity.
The Sahel is a transition zone in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the Sudan region to the south. It stretches across the south-central latitudes of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea.
The Sahel part of Africa includes parts of northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme South of Algeria, Niger, the extreme North of Nigeria, central Chad, central and southern Sudan, the extreme north of South Sudan, Eritrea, Cameroon, Central African Republic and the extreme north of Ethiopia.
Other leaders who participated in the panel discussion include President Roch Marc Christian Kabore of Burkina Faso, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, and Mali Foreign Affairs Minister Tieman Coulibaly.
President Kagame also took part in a discussion on Stabilisation and Development in Africa and met with Moussa Faki, Chairperson of the African Union Commission on the sidelines of the Conference.