N’Djamena – Chad on Friday urged Mali to rejoin the the G5 Sahel, a West African force and regional grouping fighting the spread of jihadist groups in the Sahel.
Mali’s military junta announced on Monday that it was withdrawing from the alliance, which is currently headed by Chad and also includes Niger, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso.
The G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-jihadist force launched in 2017.
Accusing the G5 Sahel of being a tool of an “outside” state, Mali was implicitly targeting France, with which its relations have deteriorated considerably since a military coup in August 2020.
Pushed out by the junta, in February France announced the withdrawal of its anti-jihadist military force Barkhane, which is due to come to an end in the summer.
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The current president of the G5 Sahel, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, “urges the government of the Republic of Mali to reconsider its position,” the Chadian presidency of the G5 Sahel said in a statement on Friday.
Deby himself took power in Chad at the head of a military junta after his father Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled the country with an iron grip for 30 years, was killed on the frontlines of a battle against the rebels.
Mahamat Deby, 38, “will keep Mali informed in the next few days” of “the results of his ongoing consultations with the other heads of state and government of the member countries,” the statement added, referring to an “imminent conference of heads of state and government in the headquarters country”, Mauritania, without further details.
On Wednesday, Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum said the G5 Sahel was effectively “dead” after Mali’s departure, blaming the country for “burying its head in the sand, isolating itself within Africa” and depriving the continent of “developing a concerted and coordinated anti-terror strategy”.
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Source: AFP
Image: Twitter /@PraiseAkello
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