Louise Dewast
A briefing on violent extremism in West Africa is being held by the UN Security Council, a week after Niger suffered its worst jihadist attack in which 71 solders were killed.
Militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group have staged attacks in the Sahel region this year despite the presence of thousands of regional and foreign troops.
IS said it was behind the attack on the military base, which killed the 71 soldiers.
Leaders from Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso – known as the G5 Sahel group – outlined a number of steps for improving security at a meeting on Sunday, but a joint statement released afterwards offered very few details on how to achieve them.
Presenting that statement, Burkina Faso’s President Marc Kabore pledged to deploy more armed forces and promised to stop the main sources of funding for the militants, which includes gold smuggling and drug trafficking.
Profiting from porous borders and little state presence, militants are believed to have developed a system of coercion and control over communities, in particular at the border between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, enabling them to expand their capabilities.
