UN nod for Sahel force

THE UN Security Council has welcomed the deployment by the so-called Group of Five (G5) – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – of a joint force to tackle the threat of terrorism, as well as serious challenges posed by transnational organised crime in Africa’s restive Sahel region.

The council welcomed the joint force’s strategic concept of operations, saying it intended to review the deployment in four months’ time. It urged the joint force of up to 5 000 military and police personnel, as well as the UN mission in Mali and French forces in that country, to co-ordinate their operations. ANA