WK: As French forces kill 10 suspected islamists, Sahel instability persists

French counter-terrorism forces based in West Africa have killed ten suspected jihadists accused of involvement in a massacre of police officers in Burkina Faso last November. 

This Thursday, the French chief of defence staff said in a statement that the suspected jihadists were from a group affiliated to the radical Ansarul Islam movement that has carried out "numerous attacks against civilians" in northern Burkina Faso.  

They were believed to have been involved in an attack in which a total of 57 people were killed on 14 November, when several hundred men stormed a police base in Inata near the Malian border.

November massacre

The November attack was the deadliest to target security forces in Burkina Faso since the start of an Islamist insurgency in 2015.

The ambush caused an outcry in Burkina, where many people accused the government of leaving under-equipped soldiers at the mercy of the extremist groups which have established themselves across West Africa in the past decade.

This comes as mutinous soldiers overthrew the country's president Roch Marc Christian Kabore in January, citing what they called his inept handling of the insurgency, among other factors.

However, many observers believe that jihadism is only a symptom of the institutional crises across the Sahel.

State failure at the heart of Sahel insurgencies

"The main issue is to do with governance," says Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos from France's Research Institute for Development.

"Whether it's military governance or civilian governance, it is the issue of impunity and the lack of social justice," that are is at the root of the socio-political problems in the region. 

Since independence from France, "the main problem in the Sahel is not jihadist groups, it's not terrorism. It is the state, it is the army," Montclos asserts.

The jihadist insurgency that has swept across the Sahel since 2012 is a symptom of the crisis and goes far beyond military intervention. 

France is in the process of redeploying its Operation Barkhane force, more than halving troops to around 2,500 and moving more assets to its military HQ in Niger.

France has also been leading the drive for European Takuba special forces to work alongside local forces.