West African, France leaders set up 5,000-strong force
France intervened in its former colony in January 2013 to drive out al-Qaeda-linked groups [AP] |
Five African countries have launched a new multinational force to
fight armed groups in the Sahel region, which France's President
Emmanuel Macron told a summit in Mali should be fully operational "in a matter of weeks".
The new regional anti-terror force is set to include as many as 5,000 soldiers, with one battalion from each of the so-called G5 Sahel countries: Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
"Our enemies are cowards, but they have determination. They want to
destroy us," Macron said on Sunday, in a regional summit with the
G5-Sahel leaders in the Malian capital, Bamako.
France's president said his country would contribute $9m to the
new force fighting this year. He also mentioned a contribution of 70
vehicles, without saying whether that was included in the sum.
The European Union has also pledged $57m towards the new force, and
France is seeking additional financing from partners, including Germany
and the United States.
The new force will operate in the region along with the 12,000-strong
UN peacekeeping mission and the 5,000-strong French troops already in
Mali, which obtained its independence from France in 1960.
In addition, Macron announced $228m in development aid to the Sahel region over the next five years.
"We cannot hide behind words, and must take actions," he said.
Speaking at the same event, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita
described al-Qaeda linked fighters in the Sahel as "without face and
with no ethics".
"They do not share our values," Keita said.
The fight against armed fighters is expected to focus on the border
area between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where attacks against
military barracks have occurred recently.
A French military intervention in January 2013 turned back a
separatist movement in Mali's north, but various armed groups still
stage attacks.
There are at least 12,000 UN peacekeeping troops and 5,000 French troops in Mali [Joe Penney/Reuters] |
Key challenges
Macron's visit comes as al-Qaeda's Mali branch released a
proof-of-life video of six foreign hostages, including a French woman
who was abducted in late 2016 in the northern Malian town of Gao.
On Sunday, Macron denounced the abduction of Sophie Petronin, vowing
that his government will "put all our energy towards eradicating" the
armed groups involved in the abduction.
Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall, reporting from Bamako, said financing remains the crucial issue of the operations across the Sahel.
"There are troops here and they've been trying to solve the problem
of insecurity in the region, but they haven't been successful because
the funding is at the heart of this situation," he said, adding that
lack of money could cause the new initiative to fail.
"The United Nations is struggling now with the approach of the US
that the UN should reduce its security budget around the world," Vall
said.
Meanwhile, analysts said internal conflicts within Mali is complicating the fight against the armed groups.
"What we see is a big focus on military, on equipment, on
institutions that they are going to establish," Marie Roger Biloa,
editor of the Paris-based Africa International, told Al Jazeera.
She said, however, that so far it has proved difficult to bring
troops from different countries to effectively work together, and called
for increased political efforts to address Mali's "very complicated"
situation.
"The problem is that France wants to fight terror - because terrorism
is striking on French soil but also abroad - but they fail to realise
or to take into consideration that Mali, which is the heart of the
problem, is having internal problems to solve," she said.
"If you want to be efficient you also have to address that issue."
In 2015, an alliance of Tuareg-led rebels and Mali's government
signed a peace deal brokered by Algeria.
The deal hands greater autonomy
to the northern region of Mali to the Tuaregs, in a bid to end a cycle
of violence.
Since then, there have been sporadic fighting between pro-government
militia and the coalition of Tuareg rebels, also known as the
Coordination of Movements for Azawad.
"You have a political situation with the Azawad pro-independence
rebels who did not really sign the peace agreement - they just initialed
this, they refused to sign it. But you have a huge gap of trust between
the government and the rebels," Biloa told Al Jazeera.
Mali has seen a series of attacks in recent months, including the deadly raid of a tourist resort in Bamako in mid-June.
More than 100 UN soldiers have also died in recent months, making it the most deadly UN mission to date.
It was Macron's second visit to Mali on Sunday, within the two months of his presidency [Reuters] |
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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