UN chief vows to pursue push for Sahel anti-terror force

BAMAKO: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has vowed to pursue support for an anti-terror force gathering five Sahel nations, despite a US rebuff for UN funding.

Guterres visited the headquarters of the so- called G5 Sahel in the central town of Sevare on the second and final day of a trip to Mali, which is battling a jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.

Guterres said the trip had left him with ‘a warm heart’ and the UN would try to help the country stage a free presidential election on July 29.

“Mali must have free elections and we will do our best to help the Malian authorities to run the elections, even if I know that the difficulties are enormous”, he added during a press conference in Bamako.

Planned elections have been repeatedly postponed, in part because of security concerns over Islamist extremism.

France intervened militarily in Mali in 2013 to help government forces drive al- Qaeda-linked jihadists out of the north.

The initial mission was followed in 2014 by Operational Barkhane, which deployed 4,000 French troops alongside the UN’s 12,000strong MINUSMA peacekeeping operation in Mali.

The insurgency however has spread to central and southern Mali and spilled into Burkina Faso and Niger.

Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger last year agreed to set up the joint force, which would comprise 5,000 troops with a mandate to confront jihadists in the vulnerable Sahel belt.

It was projected to be fully up and running in March, but its deployment has faced delays and the joint force is poorly- equipped. — AFP