- ‘It’s clear to me that Türkiye 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 important part of international solutions,’ says Joao Gomes Cravinho
MUNICH
Türkiye has an important and positive role to play in Africa’s Sahel, and it can be an important part of international solutions, according to the EU special envoy for the region.
Joao Gomes Cravinho told Anadolu that the Sahel, which borders the Sahara Desert, is an enormous part of Africa which is “suffering from great instability (and) jihadist insurgency in some parts.”
Cravinho, a former Portuguese foreign minister, said problems of governance, drug trafficking and many other difficulties plague the region, problems that “cannot be solved by one country alone.”
An alliance of international support is needed, he said.
— ‘I think that Türkiye is a country with whom we are interested in working in the European Union’
— ‘It’s clear to me that Türkiye 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 important part of… pic.twitter.com/qRcKYzkrvG
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) February 15, 2025
“I think that Türkiye 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, stability of that region is important for all of us,” he noted.
Cravinho said he recently visited the West African country of Mali and met people and officials there, including the Turkish ambassador.
“It’s clear to me that Türkiye 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 important part of international solutions,” he noted.
Asked if other global issues, like the war in Ukraine, undermine global efforts to tackle problems in the Sahel region, he said the world is facing “great turmoil.”
“And as a result, it is very difficult to focus attention on one issue, on the issue of the Sahel.”
He added: “While we have these tremendous problems that result from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that result from everything that has happened in Gaza, all of this, the Sudan situation, it’s very difficult to bring the international community together on the question of the Sahel.”
All of these problems end up “accentuating each other” and feeding each other, Cravinho said.
“But it is very important that the international community should not forget the Sahel, because the consequences are very widespread consequences therefore consequences for the region, but also for Europe, for other parts of Africa,” he said.
