Mali: Limited Progress on Sahel Joint Force

The proposed anti-terror joint force of the Sahel G5 nations - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger - received a boost this month when the EU pledged the equivalent of $56 million to bolster security efforts in the region (EU News, June 5). However, plans for the unit to be operational before the end of 2017 appear to be ambitious.

The joint force was proposed at a G5 meeting in Bamako in February, held in the wake of a devastating suicide attack on a camp in Gao that housed Malian soldiers and rebels - nearly 80 people were killed (Maliweb, February 6; Maliweb, January 19).

In a speech in May, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said the proposed force would be ready by the end of the year (APA, May 4). It is expected to be made up of up to 10,000 personnel - an original proposal has said 5,000 - and will be led by Mali's chief of the general staff, General Didier Dacko, a veteran of the country's battle against Islamist extremists (Sahel Standard, June 11). Few other details, however, have emerged of what this regional force will look like.

A possible model is the Chad-based multi-national joint task force established to battle Boko Haram. The proposed G5 force, however, would have a much wider remit. It would operate in all five countries, with a focus on the border areas. As well as counter-terrorism, it is envisaged that the force will combat trafficking and organized crime.

There is a pressing need for cross-border initiatives to tackle militants in the Sahel. In March, fighters thought to be part of al-Qaeda's broad Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen alliance attacked a military post in Boulikessi, which sits on Mali's border with Burkina Faso, killing 11 soldiers (Maliweb, March 6). Burkina Faso, which is battling a homegrown jihadist threat in Ansar ul Islam, is dependent on its neighbor's efforts, while Chad is the only of the G5 states with anything like a functioning air force. A joint effort makes a good deal of sense.

Coordination between the Sahel partners, however, remains poor, and each still lacks the capability to adequately tackle extremist networks. But the proposed joint force's broad remit and disagreements on over how it will be funded are also holding up its establishment.

Although heavily promoted by the French, whose own Operation Barkhane has been active in the region since August 2014, there are genuine concerns that handing wide-ranging powers to military units in a region where it is often hard to distinguish the affiliations of armed groups could be counterproductive. It seems international forces, including the United Nation's own Mali mission, MINUSMA, will need to remain in place for some time to come.