The announcement of a plan endowed with a billion dollars, financed half by the States of the continent, does not hide the feeling of powerlessness in the face of the multiplication of attacks. Admittedly, the West African organizers of this extraordinary summit on the fight against terrorism never displayed the mad pretension of finding in twenty-four hours the recipe that would break overnight the dynamics of the armed groups established for several years in Sahel and in the Lake Chad Basin. Not a day for months, even years, without Mali, Nigeria, Niger and now a growing part of Burkina Faso not counting their dead civilians, soldiers or police, insurgents, traffickers, real jihadists or timely of the cause . But it floated, Saturday, September 14, in the conference room of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, like a scent of helplessness in the face of this threat which, starting from the sands of the Sahara, is now streaming and dangerously towards the countries of the Gulf of Guinea without that the States concerned nor the Western or UN armies are unable to contain it. It was necessary to wait ten minutes after the start of the reading of the final press release by the president of the commission of the Economic Community of West African countries (ECOWAS), the sub-regional organization initiating this meeting, to finally enter in the catalog of good intentions. Ten long minutes of introduction to thank the Heads of State or Government of the sixteen ECOWAS countries for their participation, plus Mauritania and Chad, concerned in the foreground by the Malian security issue. Then a long list of special guests, French, German, American, Saudi or Algerian, without forgetting the European Union (EU) and other international organizations. So many actors, sponsors, observers or donors involved in these multidimensional wars, diverse in their social, community, religious springs, and their locations. The main announcement, the most concrete, served in conclusion, relates to the adoption by ECOWAS of a priority action plan to "combat terrorism", broken down into eight axes and planned over five years (2020-2024), endowed with a billion dollars (903 million euros). A billion dollars, by way of comparison, is the budget that the UN allocates annually to its peacekeeping mission deployed only in Mali. Under the impetus of Côte d'Ivoire, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) – another sub-regional organization intended to achieve the economic integration of its member states – will finance half of this sum. Who, within ECOWAS, will pay the rest? By what mechanism? And how will this billion be “distributed” between all the countries concerned and to cover what needs? The answer to all these questions will have to be provided by December and the next ordinary ECOWAS summit. "Risk of metastasis of the whole sub-region" "The threat is growing, strengthening and descending towards the south, there is a risk of metastasis at the level of the whole sub-region", explains Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou. “The ECOWAS therefore had to take up the issue,” adds the man who this year holds the rotating presidency of this sub-regional organization. The Head of State of Niger speaks as a connoisseur. His country is experiencing the sad security fate of being surrounded by insurgent regions in Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria or Libya. "The answer we have found is the mobilization of States and the pooling of their response capacities", he announces. Mobilization and pooling of means which primarily concern the intelligence services, the army, the police, the various ministries called upon to better coordinate their efforts when their resources are limited. "It is imperative to dry up the source of financing for terrorist groups linked in particular to drug trafficking arriving on the West African coasts towards the Mediterranean", also analyzes the Nigerien Minister of the Interior, Mohamed Bazoum. The diagnosis does not date from this peak. Nor the proposed solutions. In this regard, the mixed experience of the Joint Armed Force of the G5 Sahel (FC-G5S), bringing together military contingents from Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad, does not particularly lend itself to optimism. . Three years after its creation, the FC-G5S has yet to prove its ability to fulfill the mission entrusted to it: securing borders, combating terrorism and organized criminal groups. A creation, supported by France, including a reduced number of actors and based on the same principles of mobilization and pooling of forces and resources. On the contrary, the G5 seems to be disintegrating and risks dissolving as the threat grows and moves away from its area of intervention.