Established in February 2014, the regional organisation G5-Sahel with its Member States Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad has aroused great expectations with regard to a stabilisation of the Sahel region, which is plagued by numerous conflicts. At the same time, the region has increasingly moved into the focus of (European) public attention in recent years due to its role as a key route for migration to Europe. But there is a need for a comprehensive strategy to stabilise the Sahel region that does not rely solely on military components, as G5 Sahel is favouring at present. European policy should therefore assign greater support to the systematic leveraging of synergies based on the Memorandum of Understanding concluded by the two organisations, greater political coordination and a stronger role for ECOWAS with its civilian instruments in efforts to stabilise the Sahel region.