FRANCE STEPPING UP EFFORTS IN AFRICA
Support offered for anti-terror force in Sahel
• France on Sunday promised strong support for a new multinational force that will carry out military operations against extremists in Africa’s vast Sahel region, while President Emmanuel Macron met in Mali with leaders from the five regional countries involved.
Macron said France will provide military support for operations as well as 70 tactical vehicles and communication equipment.
Leaders from Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad — known as the G5 — must clarify their roles and contributions for the 5,000-strong force to attract more support from outside countries, Macron said.
“We cannot hide behind words and must take actions,” he said.
Emphasizing the threat, the recently formed extremist group Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, based in Mali, on Saturday released a proof-oflife video showing six foreign hostages seized in the region in recent years.
The SITE Intelligence Group said the video shows Stephen McGowan of South Africa, Elliot Kenneth Arthur of Australia, Iulian Ghergut of Romania, Beatrice Stockly of Switzerland, Gloria Cecilia Narvaez of Colombia and Sophie Petronin of France.
“No genuine negotiations have begun to rescue your children,” a narrator says.
The narrator also mentions Macron, saying Petronin “is hoping that the new French president will come to her rescue.”
In March, a video announced the creation of the new terror organization from a merger of three extremist groups: the al- Qaida- linked al-Mourabitoun, Ansar Dine and al- Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
The new group claimed responsibility for last month’s attack on a resort area popular with foreigners outside Mali’s capital that killed at least five people.
Of the six hostages shown in the video released Saturday, McGowan was the earliest seized, abducted in 2011 from a hostel in Timbuktu. Narvaez, a nun, was the most recently seized in February near the Burkina Faso border.
The video came after Sweden’s government announced on June 26 the release of Johan Gustafsson, who was held by Islamic extremists in Mali for six years.
The new anti-terror force, meant to be operational in the next few months, will operate in the region along with a 12,000- strong UN peacekeeping mission in Mali and France’s own 5,000- strong Barkhane military operation, its largest overseas mission.
The European Union already has pledged some $74 million in support of the new G5 force. Sunday’s meetings are meant to lay out next steps and find more financial backing.
In mid- June, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution welcoming the deployment of the new force. The UN, however, will not contribute financially.