{"id":32377,"date":"2017-02-07T02:24:07","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T02:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/africa-sahel-states-agree-to-set-up-joint-counter\/"},"modified":"2017-02-07T02:24:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T02:24:04","slug":"africa-sahel-states-agree-to-set-up-joint-counter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/africa-sahel-states-agree-to-set-up-joint-counter\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Sahel states agree to set up joint counter-terror force"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Five countries in Africa&#8217;s Sahel region have agreed to set up a joint counter-terrorism force to tackle the jihadist threat.}<\/p>\n<p>Leaders from Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania made the announcement at a summit in Bamako.<\/p>\n<p>Chad&#8217;s President Idriss Deby said the members of the G5 group were on the &#8220;frontline against terrorism&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Their meeting followed an attack last month near the Malian city of Gao which killed nearly 80 people.<\/p>\n<p>The suicide bombing was the worst attack in the region for years.<\/p>\n<p>Few details were given about the proposed force&#8217;s size or where it would be based.<\/p>\n<p>UN Security Council approval and a UN resolution would be requested before the force could be set up, Niger&#8217;s President Mahamadou Issoufou said.<\/p>\n<p>The countries will seek European funding, according to Mr Deby, who said the new force would &#8220;save&#8221; European soldiers&#8217; lives at a time when the terror threat appeared to be growing.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s most dangerous in decades.<\/p>\n<p>More than 3,000 French troops are also deployed in the region, having intervened in Mali in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The Sahel is home to many Islamist groups, some aligned with al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Mourabitoun, a group linked to al-Qaeda&#8217;s North African affiliate, claimed responsibility for last month&#8217;s bombing in Gao.<\/p>\n<p>Other attacks targeting tourists occurred in Mali, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast in late 2015 and last year.<\/p>\n<p>An internal G5 document describes northern Mali as a &#8220;known hideout for terrorists&#8221; and a &#8220;launch pad for attacks against other countries&#8221;, the AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-18050 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_94005849_8d14fcf1-e3d9-4c23-9c31-4f01eede40bf.jpg\" alt=\"More than 70 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Gao, Northern Mali, last month\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Five countries in Africa&#8217;s Sahel region have agreed to set up a joint counter-terrorism force to tackle the jihadist threat.} Leaders from Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania made the announcement at a summit in Bamako. Chad&#8217;s President Idriss Deby said the members of the G5 group were on the &#8220;frontline against terrorism&#8221;. Their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32377"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32377"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}