Faced with the perfidy and atrocities of asymmetrically-strategized armed terrorist groups in the Sahel, the region's states thought they were responding by resorting to states of exception, which allowed them to lower the standards of the rule of law, thereby enshrining its retreat. In the operational conduct of the fight against terrorism, the rule of law has been steadily eroded under the cloak of an adapted system whose implementation is fraught with frequent human rights violations. In the name of security, the rule of law is being severely tested, with the result that it is being lowered to half-mast and replaced by the right to security.In so doing, the response of states brings a first and important victory to terrorist groups, who aim to undermine their foundations on the principles of the rule of law, while at the same time drawing their propaganda rhetoric from it to recruit in communities affected by insecurity.