The Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) was formed in 2014, in the wake of the international military intervention in Mali (2012–), out of the sense that their security and development challenges could not be effectively managed in the framework of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Since its formation, the G5 Sahel has become one of the main actors in the Sahel and the “go-to” interlocutor of international actors active in a region where counterterrorist operations coexist and sometimes overlap with UN stabilization missions.

This chapter argues that the G5 Sahel’s peacebuilding approach reflects the anxieties of its member-states and its international partners on the stabilization of a region where a plurality of non-state actors are active and have increasingly exploited the lapses of the national governments and societal grievances to present themselves as alternative sources of governance and legitimacy towards the population. This chapter criticizes the depoliticization of the peacebuilding approach by the G5 Sahel and demonstrates that without addressing state-society dynamics and the impact of political and security choices on inter and intra-community dynamics, peace will be difficult to sustain in the Sahel despite the heavy investment in the success of the organization by a plurality of actors.