Sahel force readies to fight Islamist militants

WEST African nations are preparing to deploy a military force to counter a surge in ambushes and bombings by Islamist militants that more than 15 000 international troops have failed to contain.

Militants are targeting not only UN peacekeepers in Mali but increasingly carrying out assaults across its borders.

That has prompted five nations south of the Sahara desert known as the G5 Sahel to assemble a 4 000-member force by the end of the year, Malian Defence Minister Tiena Coulibaly said. Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania will also contribute soldiers.

“The frequency of attacks is increasing in Mali and northern Burkina Faso,” Sean Smith, a West Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, said from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital.

“Countries are co-operating better than before, but the number of attacks has risen every year since 2013 and there’s no sign of abating.”

Mali has been gripped by violence since ethnic Tuareg rebels began a separatist insurgency and joined forces with Islamist militants, seizing control of the vast north in 2012.

A French military intervention in 2013 pushed out most militants but ushered in an era of hitand-run attacks and bombings.

Despite several peace deals granting some separatists a degree of autonomy, groups linked to al-Qaeda have vowed to press their campaign until all foreign troops leave West Africa.

“The terrorists want to create permanent insecurity,” Coulibaly said.

“Their business is well co-ordinated, well thought-out. The attacks are calculated to undermine the morale of our troops.”

The UN has deployed more than 10 000 soldiers to help restore Malian state authority in the north, while a French military force moves across the region to hunt down militants.

France last week said its soldiers killed scores of suspected fighters hiding in a forest on the border between Mali and Burkina Faso.