The crossroads of the Spanish Army in the Sahel

The withdrawal of French troops and the landing of Russian mercenaries complicate the situation in a region plagued by jihadism.

The shadow of Afghanistan's failure is cast over the Sahel, where French troops halted the sweeping jihadist advance in January 2013, and are now withdrawing from the country.

Minister Robles has reiterated the commitment to the Sahel and has assured that Spain will continue in the #EUTM-Mali, the EU training mission, of which it is the first contributor, with more than 500 troops, "as long as possible".

What has set off all the alarms is the military junta's agreement with Wagner, a mercenary company close to the Kremlin, which emerged with the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and has intervened in Syria and Libya.

Europe maintains its mission in the CAR for now, but has warned that the military it instructs will not be able to operate with the Russians or their facilities to be used by them. In Mali it has not yet taken any action, but it will be very difficult to justify that the EU continues to form a coup army supported by Moscow.