Macron in Mali for diplomatic push on jihadists

World
Europe

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Mali on Sunday to boost Western backing for a regional anti-jihadist force, with France urging greater support for the Sahel region amid mounting insecurity.

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) is welcomed by Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as he arrives at the Modibo Keita international airport in Mali on July 2, 2017. /VCG Photo

The so-called "G5 Sahel" countries south of the Sahara – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – have pledged to fight jihadists on their own soil with instability and Islamist attacks on the rise.

Macron is joining these nations' heads of state in Bamako for a special summit where France's backing for the force will be announced, with a likely focus on providing equipment.

Based in Sevare, central Mali, the 5,000-strong G5 Sahel force aims to bolster 12,000 UN peacekeepers and France's own 4,000-member Operation Barkhane, which is operating in the region.

The UN peacekeeping force in Mali comprises some 12,000 troops while France has deployed about 4,000 soldiers in the Sahel region to fight terrorism. /AFP Photo

Macron is also looking to extra backing from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the US – which already has a drone base in Niger – beyond a pledge of 50 million euros (57.2 million US dollars) made by the EU.

Serge Michailof, a researcher at the Paris-based IRIS institute, described the EU contribution as "a joke" given the EU's "very deep pockets" and the poverty of the Sahel countries.

"This force is going to cost 300-400 million US dollars at the very least," he told AFP.

Chadian President Idriss Deby has said his country cannot afford to mobilize large numbers of troops simultaneously for the UN peacekeeping mission and also in the new force.

Deby and Macron are due to meet on the margins of the Bamako summit to discuss the financial issue, according to the French presidency.

Chad's military is widely viewed as the strongest of the five Sahel nations.

Al-Qaeda's Mali branch, meanwhile, offered a reminder of the jihadists' threat, with the release of a proof-of-life video of six foreign hostages including Frenchwoman Sophie Petronin who was abducted in late 2016 in the northern Malian town of Gao.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Mali in May, his first foreign visit as president outside Europe. /AFP Photo

Macron visited Gao in northern Mali in May, his first foreign visit as president outside Europe, and promised French troops would remain "until the day there is no more Islamic terrorism in the region".

(Source: AFP)

11845km