Africa force chief appeals for support

The commander of an African coalition force preparing to fight militants in the troubled Sahel region yesterday appealed for political support.

The “G5 Sahel” – comprising soldiers from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – is due to launch its first operation at the end of the month but still lacks funding.

Yesterday, UN Security Council ambassadors visited the command headquarters in the central Malian town of Sevare for talks on the crisis.

“We are first of all waiting for political support,” from the council, said the force’s commander, Malian Gen Didier Dacko. But he also said the force needed equipment.

“We had planned to reach maximum operational capacity in the next few months, in 2018, and at the rate things are going we think it’s achievable,” Gen Dacko said, providing there was support.

The estimated budget for the first year of operations is estimated at €423 million (Dh1.83 billion), but so far only €108m has been raised.

The vast Sahel region has turned into a hotbed of extremism since chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, the militant takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and the rise of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.

An attack in Niger’s southwest, which borders Mali, killed 13 police on Saturday, weeks after a deadly ambush on a joint US-Niger patrol.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last week that the Sahel region was descending into all-out violence and said the world body must help the region confront the threat from Islamist militants.

A UN meeting on support for the force is due on October 30.