"Yesterday, our neighbor Niger buried 71 of its soldiers who have been shot by those who want to create chaos. Our solidarity will not be lacking in Niger, tomorrow with my brothers from the G5 Sahel, we will go to Niamey and we will consult ", said Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta on Saturday (December 14th) at the opening of a political dialogue forum in Bamako.
"A meeting of the heads of state of the G5 Sahel will be held Sunday in Niamey to discuss security problems in space" of the G5 (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad), the AFP confirmed on Saturday Nigerian presidency.
Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno will also attend the meeting, a spokesman for the Chadian presidency told AFP.
Burkina Faso, which holds the rotating presidency of the G5 Sahel, has not yet communicated about this meeting.
"A very symbolic gesture for this improvised summit: the heads of state will meditate on the tomb of the 71 soldiers who fell on the field of honor," said France 24 special envoy Cyril Payen. "Niamey is a dead city. Beyond the emotion, there is a very important security apparatus, the streets are deserted for the arrival of heads of state," he continues.
Repeated assaults throughout the Sahel
From Friday to Sunday, Niger observes a three-day national mourning to pay tribute to its soldiers killed Tuesday in the attack on the military camp of Inates, in the west of the country.
This attack, the worst in the history of this poor Sahelian country, was claimed by the Islamic State organization.
The entire Sahel - in particular Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso - is now the target of increasingly regular, targeted and murderous attacks by Islamist groups, despite the strengthening of local armies, the constitution of a force international soldier of the G5 Sahel, and the presence of 4,500 French soldiers of the Barkhane anti-terrorist force as well as American soldiers.
French President Emmanuel Macron wishes to "reclarify the political framework and conditions" for French military intervention in the region. He wanted more "clarity" from his Sahelian counterparts about the French presence, which is provoking growing contestation among the populations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
With AFP
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