DAKAR, Senegal — The military-governed nations of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali have formed a unified force aimed at addressing the growing wave of extremist violence in the turbulent Sahel region, as announced by Niger’s defense minister on Wednesday.
This newly established unit will consist of 5,000 members and will be operational across the three nations, according to Salifou Mody, who shared this information during a state television interview. He noted that some collaborative military operations have already begun to take place.
For more than ten years, Niger, along with Mali and Burkina Faso, has been embroiled in a battle against an insurgency led by various extremist groups, including those with affiliations to al-Qaida and the Islamic State. In the wake of recent military coups in these countries, the ruling juntas have removed French military forces and sought assistance from Russian mercenaries to bolster their security frameworks.
Mody elaborated that this unified force will include personnel dedicated to air, ground, and intelligence operations, all supported by a coordination system. “We share the same region and encounter similar threats, especially from criminal organizations,” stated the defense minister. “It became essential for us to combine our resources.”
The security landscape in the Sahel has deteriorated since the military juntas took control, resulting in an alarming increase in attacks and civilian casualties inflicted by both extremist groups and government forces. In just the last six months, violence has claimed the lives of more than 3,470 individuals in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, while approximately 2.6 million people have been displaced, as reported by the United Nations refugee agency.
Following their ascendancy, the juntas in these nations withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional body that has been operational for nearly five decades. In September of the prior year, they established their own security collaboration, known as the Alliance of Sahel States.
Some experts view this new alliance as a strategy to bolster the legitimacy of these military governments in the face of sanctions related to the coups and strained relations with neighboring countries.
