Burkina Faso and Niger leave the Sahel network G5 One dead and two injured after a knife attack in Paris – suspected terrorism

After Mali last year, Burkina Faso and Niger have now also announced their withdrawal from the group of Sahel states (G5) and their joint force against jihadists. The G5 is “failing to achieve its objectives,” the two West African neighbors criticized in a joint statement on Saturday.

“Worse still, the legitimate ambitions of our countries to make the G5 Sahel an area of ​​security and development are being hampered by an institutional bureaucracy from an earlier era.”, the two countries added, apparently with an eye on former colonial power France. The G5 must “not serve foreign interests to the detriment of our peoples, much less the dictates of any power that treats them like children in the name of partnership and denies them the sovereignty of our peoples.”

The G5 was founded in 2014 from the Sahel states of Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. To combat the increasingly strong jihadists in the region, the five countries established a joint force with several thousand soldiers in 2017, with the support of France.

Mali withdrew after a coup

Mali withdrew from the G5 force over a year ago. The army seized power in the West African country in 2020. The military has also taken power in Burkina Faso and Niger: the coup took place in Burkina last year, and in Niger the military took power at the end of July.

After the departure of Burkina Faso and Niger, only Chad and Mauritania now belong to the G5 Sahel group. Their anti-jihadist force is largely financed by the European Union. (saw/sda/afp)