Chad, Niger pledge to revive G5 Sahel regional force

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - The presidents of Chad and Niger pledged Wednesday to revive the G5 Sahel military grouping after Mali’s exit from the West African force.

Niger’s Mohamed Bazoum and his counterpart Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said this at a joint press conference following their meeting in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena.

The announcement follows a decision by Mali’s military junta in May to withdraw from the force, citing a lack of progress in uprooting an insurgency.

The G5 Sahel group, which originally comprised Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, was created in 2017 to combat an insurgency in the “three borders” zone on the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso as part of a multinational force.

“There will soon be a meeting between the four other allied countries in the G5 Sahel -- Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania -- to ensure that the G5 is viable," Bazoum told journalists.

“We have not yet considered that it is over for the G5 Sahel,” he added.

Deby for his part “regretted” Mali’s withdrawal, saying it will have consequences for the mission of the joint force.

“We regret this withdrawal. We hope that Mali will reverse the decision taken because the fight against terrorism is a fight that a country cannot do alone. It is collective,” he said.

“We will get even closer to our Malian brothers so that they return to the G5 Sahel.”

The two heads of state also announced that they had signed a new security agreement.

In February, President Bazoum accepted that French and European special forces would cross into his country from neighboring Mali to respond to threats posed by terrorist groups in the tri-border area.

The announcement came on the back of reports that European leaders had decided to pull out their forces deployed in Mali as part of a counter-terrorism mission due to “multiple obstructions by the Malian transitional authorities.”

Around 2,400 French troops that were part of the forces deployed in Mali and roughly 900 special forces in the French-led Takuba Task Force were helping Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger tackle an insurgency linked to the al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS terrorist groups.