An alarming show of force? Or opportunistic claim, following the losses suffered in recent days by the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara on the ground? Aly Tounkara, director of CE3S, the Center for Security and Strategic Studies in the Sahel, decrypts this event in an interview with David Baché."

There is nothing surprising today that the Islamic State has local actors, operating from Niamey, so that they can attack the various symbols of the State, military or even political institutions. So today, indeed, this indigenization or in any case this territorialization of insecurity, means that today the Islamic State has, unfortunately, quite a few incursions into Sahelian capitals today.

This claim also comes after recent setbacks inflicted by the Nigerien army and by Barkhane on the Islamic State group. Is this claim not opportunistic, as if to say: we are still here?

The claim or attack is opportunistic, because we know very well that today, it is true, Sahelian states struggle to provide quality security to different populations, but at the same time the Islamic State proves sufficiently how it can strike, regardless of the place, regardless of the symbols. So it is a strong signal, all the same, that is addressed both to African capitals, but at the same time to the different partners of the Sahel as well, namely the French Barkhane force.

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