France’s Contradictory Behaviour In Counterterrorism

There is no doubt that the return of the last French hostage in the world, Sophie Pétronin, on Friday, to her country safely after its liberation from the grip of armed men in Mali for four full years, is a great humanitarian event that President Emmanuel Macron is entitled in principle to celebrate in front of the French people in the form of political and diplomatic achievement in the field of protecting a French national.

But what about the hidden scenes of the “deal”? And the rights of the peoples of the African Sahel region, especially Algeria, to get rid of the scourge of terrorism that has for years been fed by the ransom revenues that are paid to free the “Al Qaeda” hostages and finance its battalions in the troubled region?

Numerous and frequent leaks, including from the French media itself, confirm that a large sum of between 15 and 20 million euros has been paid in exchange for the release of the four hostages (French Sophie Pétronin, the leader of Mali opposition, Soumaila Cissé, and two Italian hostages).

if it is difficult to ascertain the truth of the numbers in circulation, then it is certain that what happened was a deal between the parties concerned, which was not limited to the release of Al Qaeda prisoners by Mali government (the apparent aspect of the operation). As for the money, it is an act hidden in the exchange, because it is one of the principles of negotiation that cannot be relinquished between terrorist groups in the Sahel and European regimes.

Thus, regional terrorism in the region will benefit again from huge revenues to revive its activities through arms and financing deals, just as it benefits from the vitality of its released elements and the resumption of their terrorist acts within the armed militias.

What the Elysee administration did is not an exception in the tradition of the French system, as it never stopped paying ransoms to liberate its nationals, regardless of the disastrous consequences on the countries of the region, and we remember in 2015 the sharp debate in Paris about the ransom that spread widely and was paid in cash to Al Qaeda in the countries of the Maghreb, in exchange for the liberation of the hostage Serge Lazarevic despite President Francois Hollande’s denial at the time of the incident.

In this way, Paris proves once again that it will never be a party in resolving the African Sahel crisis, because what concerns it is only its narrow interests. Rather, with its illegal and immoral behaviour, it implicitly creates terrorism and feeds it in all ways to find international justifications for direct intervention in the region, in defence of its economic gains and security of its “historical” privileges of wealth!

The liberation of terrorists, the payment of the criminal ransom, and the negotiations with the rebel groups does not only mean that France is never a reliable partner in counter-terrorism, even if it claims this but rather it is practically helping terrorists to spread!

What France is doing once again in dealing with terrorists unilaterally outside the regional and international will represents a flagrant violation of the international law that criminalizes ransom first, and a transgression of its obligations within the European Union second and its various African partners, and this is a breach of its pledges towards the approach of Algeria and the Sahel countries in their fight against terrorism as well, and through it, it preferred to give priority to its own interests at the expense of the security of the region.

As part of a regulation approved in Luxembourg in 2015, following a meeting of foreign ministers, the European Union has strongly condemned the kidnapping of people by terrorist groups and their release in exchange for a ransom.

The aforementioned regulation indicated that “kidnapping for ransom constitutes a source of terrorist financing and supports their capabilities to threaten the interests and security of states”, which means that this is explicit support for Algeria’s approach in this regard.

For its part, the United Nations’ General Assembly approved, in December 2012, a list calling on member states to refrain from financing or supporting terrorist activities.

In this regulation, the General Assembly expressed its “concern over the increase in the number of kidnappings and the seizure of hostages, to demand ransoms or political privileges by terrorist groups”, saying that, “this problem must be addressed”.

In early 2014, the UN Security Council issued a resolution condemning the crimes of kidnapping by terrorist groups to collect funds, calling on all countries to prevent terrorists from directly or indirectly benefiting from ransom payments or political concessions, and to secure the release of hostages.

Algeria is considered one of the most important initiators of the various UN regulations, which have repeatedly affirmed its categorical refusal to pay ransoms to criminal groups, and is continuing its efforts to “reach a de facto criminalization of this practice, which is the main source of financing terrorism and organized crime”.

This occurs at a time when Western countries, led by France, are still indifferent to the risks of paying terrorists on the African coast because their political gains domestically with the French public opinion precede the efforts of the African and international community in general to eradicate transcontinental terrorism.

In fact, the decay of the situation in the regions of regional tension in sub-Saharan Africa serves France’s own agendas, according to observers, as it is always looking for artificial justifications that allow it to direct military intervention to secure its companies in the region and guard the looted wealth with the logic of historical spoils, while its slogans towards terrorism, especially when it comes to Arab and African external geography, remain mere cylindrical discourses for international consumption, but the field practices quickly expose them through the criminal behaviours which are legally and morally criminalized and by all standards.