Sounds like they really want the French/West to become dogged down in the epitome of a worthless desert.
Using the lipstick/pig image, I don't think the lipstick of ideology means much here.
Some regions to some African states or even only some groups therein came to the conclusion that violence is a promising business model or path to power.
They also happen to have discovered that using the mantle of religious ideology makes recruiting somewhat easier and helps getting some outside support.
Thirty years ago those groups would have been "socialists".
It's embarrassing that only a decade or so after the West finally understood it got much wrong during the Cold War - and especially so in the Third World - a simple re-branding sufficed to provoke the same old domino fears, containment and push-back intentions.
It's a huge waste of attention.
Open your eyes; the semi-arid zone south of the Sahara has been turning into a desert through desertification driven by droughts and excessive grazing. A bit farther south, there's also a shortage of energy due to excessive consumption of wood (more than grows).
These regions are amongst the few where the Malthusian problem is really striking; they don't produce much of value, certainly not enough to buy their way out of this problem.
Sooner or later a couple million people need to migrate into rather humid areas (or areas close to rivers), usage of semiarid areas should be regulated like high seas fishery (albeit more strictly and more effectively) to enable recovery and to stop desertification before it reaches more valuable agricultural areas and finally these regions need to set up sustainable energy supply. It's likely too late for creating sustainable woodland areas, but much can be done with solar energy and energy saving/storing, obviously.
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