Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou on Wednesday appealed for international funding for a new regional force which will counter Islamic insurgencies.
The force which has been assembled by the G5 Sahel bloc — Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad was an idea conceived in 2015 but was set up in July last year.
“We bring this combat against terrorism not only to protect our own people and countries but for the whole world,” Issoufou said at a news conference in Niger’s capital, Niamey.
“For terrorism knows no border. It will go to Europe, it will go to the United States,” he said. “The world has to be mobilized.”
“We have only limited means, but if we mutualize our power, our sovereign elements will have more force, more vitality than we imagine,” Keita said.
