A JOINT military force of 5,000 troops from military-led neighbours Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will soon deploy in their troubled central Sahel region.
Niger Republic’s Defence Minister, Salifou Mody, said on state television that the new force would have its own air assets, equipment, and intelligence resources and that it will operate across the territories of the three nations, which have formed a cooperation pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Juntas in the neighbouring West African countries seized control in a series of coups between 2020 and 2023.
Last year, they agreed to tackle security threats jointly after severing long-standing military and diplomatic ties with regional allies, France, and other Western powers.
“The unified AES force is nearly ready, numbering 5,000 personnel,” Mody said on Tuesday.
“It’s only a matter of weeks before this force will be visible on the ground,” he said, adding that some joint operations had already taken place.
Violence fuelled by a decade-long fight with Islamist groups linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State has worsened since the coups.
Around 2.6 million people were displaced within the region as of December end, the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA said.
The creation of the three-way alliance followed the countries’ decision to withdraw from West Africa’s main political and economic group ECOWAS, which is still pushing them to reconsider the move that reverses decades of broader regional integration. (Reuters/NAN)
