Turkiye can play ‘important role’ in Sahel region’s stability, EU envoy says

Turkiye has an important role to play in the stability of the Sahel region, a European Union (EU) envoy has said amid Ankara’s increasing involvement in the region’s security affairs.

Speaking with the Turkish state-backed Anadolu Agency, Joao Gomes Cravinho – former Portuguese foreign minister and current EU special envoy for the Sahel – called the region bordering the Sahara Desert a significant part of Africa that is “suffering from great instability [and] jihadist insurgency”, in which missile, drug trafficking, and other issues are rampant that “cannot be solved by one country alone”.

Urging for an alliance with international support, Cravinho noted that “Turkiye is a country with whom we are interested in working in the European Union and with the countries of the region in order to generate a wide international coalition that can support that region”.

Highlighting that stability in the Sahel “is important for all of us”, the EU envoy recalled his meeting with officials in Mali – one of the major states within that region – including the Turkish ambassador there. “It’s clear to me that Turkiye has an important role that it can play in the region, and it’s an interesting role, it’s a positive role, and it can be [an] important part of international solutions”.

His comments come as Turkiye has steadily increased its footprint and security influence throughout the Sahel over the past decade, pledging millions to help regional states fight terrorism and other crimes, selling its drone technology to those states to aid in that, and even deploying former Syrian rebels to protect businesses and combat Daesh in those areas.

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