In the shadow of Ukraine Any other conflict seems minor, but there are, and although they do not reach us so directly, they announce a new wave of global violence for which we are not prepared. In Sudan, Despite a futile ceasefire attempt, Western chancelleries have evacuated citizens and diplomats unable to protect them. Isolated, the confrontation between the military in Sudan seems unlikely to be a new threat on a par with the pandemic or the conflict in Ukraine. The problem is that is not the only front in a strip of Africa, the Sahel, relatively close to Europe where not a single country is left unscathed by government instability, the proliferation of guerrillas and non-state forces that intervene partly for access to resources partly for control of a population that in the end can give them access to power.
From Sudan to the Atlantic coast there is not a single stable government with the capacity to provide security to its citizens. From Chad to Mauritania, the irruption of jihadist militias proliferates, reminiscences of the old al Qaeda or related to what remains of the Islamic State, that they are taking over a good part of the territory in the north of these countries where the desert sands do not distinguish borders. The most critical case now is Burkina Faso, where the government has declared total war, a strategy that if it fails will bring the most radical to the capital. Something that already happens in Niger and Mali. These countries from which France, the former colony, is withdrawing, are now replacing the former colonists with Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group. as it aims Mariano Aguirre in his new book, ‘Cold War 2.0’, The dynamic of that time is renewed so that Russia and China occupy the empty space left by the West. The problem is not only a loss of power, it is that where before there were resources to diplomacy, cooperation, mediation and dialogue, now everything is focused on weapons. That is where new wars are advancing.