 |
More
than 70 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Gao, Northern Mali, last
month. AFP
|
Five countries in Africa’s
Sahel region have agreed to set up a joint counter-terrorism force to tackle
the jihadist threat.
BBC
News report continues:
Leaders
from Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania made the announcement at a
summit in Bamako.
Chad's
President Idriss Déby said the members of
the G5 group were on the "frontline against terrorism".
Their
meeting followed an attack last month near the Malian city of Gao which killed
nearly 80 people.
The
suicide bombing was the worst attack in the region for years.
Few
details were given about the proposed force's size or where it would be based.
UN
Security Council approval and a UN resolution would be requested before the
force could be set up, Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said.
The
countries will seek European funding, according to Mr Déby, who said the new
force would "save" European soldiers' lives at a time when the terror
threat appeared to be growing.
The
UN peacekeeping mission in Mali consists of 12,000 troops, including hundreds
of Europeans. Seventy people have died in the operation, which is one of the
UN's most dangerous in decades.
More
than 3,000 French troops are also deployed in the region, having intervened in
Mali in 2013.
The
Sahel is home to many Islamist groups, some aligned with al-Qaeda.
Al-Mourabitoun,
a group linked to al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, claimed responsibility
for last month's bombing in Gao.
Other
attacks targeting tourists occurred in Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire in
late 2015 and last year.
An internal G5 document describes northern Mali as a "known hideout for terrorists" and a "launch pad for attacks against other countries", the AFP news agency reports.
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