According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the conflict-ridden Sahel belt - and only a coordinated, holistic approach will overcome the humanitarian crisis and lead to an improvement in the lives of the millions of afflicted people in the Sahel. The region has also become the scene of repeated clashes with violent extremists. As things stand, local troops are failing to effectively counter terrorist insurgencies - violence by militants linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State having spread in recent years. Thousands of civilians and soldiers have died in the violence. The conflict across the Sahel has enflamed ethnic tensions in the region and thousands have fled their homes in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. It should also be noted, that Mali has struggled to regain stability since 2012, when ethnic Tuareg rebels and loosely aligned armed groups seized the northern two-thirds of the country. Forces from former colonial power France intervened and helped beat the armed groups in 2013, but violent extremists regrouped in the desert and began carrying out regular attacks on the army and civilians. They have since exported their methods to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger where violence has skyrocketed in recent years, leaving a grave humanitarian crisis in its wake. A statement signed by France and its African and European allies said that "multiple obstructions" by Mali's ruling military government meant that the conditions were no longer in place to operate in the country. On that note, we would like to express our solidarity to the current government and people of Mali - in particular President Assimi Goïta and Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga - and that we understand their reluctance to cooperate and work together with "La France" - since She was a former colonial power in the region. However, in all humility, we would also like to make President Assimi Goïta and Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla aware, that they have a moral and legal obligation to uphold and protect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in the land - which they are currently failing to do. Hence it is imperative that global anti-terrorist cooperation is improved in the Sahel - with the assistance of the International Community - to restore stability, rule-of-law, the UDHR and the UNCRC in the beautiful country of Mali.

The governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are ill-equipped to confront the worsening security crisis in the region. Their approach to these challenges has been insufficient at best and counterproductive at worst. In contrast to its counterparts in Burkina Faso and Niger, Mali’s political class is doing the bare minimum to respond to the conflict. Though the government faces some domestic pressure to address insecurity, it may believe there is an unacceptable political cost to doing more. The international community should work to reshape Mali’s domestic political calculus to promote a more robust response. It should continue its security partnerships, especially with Burkina Faso and Niger, to address capacity shortfalls and reduce incidents of human rights violations.

The crisis in the Sahel is serious and multidimensional, and if it continues unabated it could have consequences far beyond the region. As the states of the region are too poor and weak to deal with this on their own, international support is needed. the current international emphasis on the G5 Sahel should change from a focus on more 'boots on the ground' to support for the development agenda of this embryonic international organisation. The Sahel needs a functioning regional framework and the G5 Sahel has some potential; but the only way to harvest this potential is to help fine-tune it to address the underlying causes of conflict. Improving security conditions in the Sahel is absolutely essential; but neither the inhabitants of the region nor the external stakeholders will find security exclusively through military means. The correct priorities must be set. And at the heart of this there must be an improvement in living conditions and a new system of governance that makes it much less possible for jihadist insurgents to appropriate local land-rights conflicts.