France to send 600 more troops to Sahel

Addis Ababa, February 3, 2020 (FBC) -France has announced it is sending an extra 600 troops to Africa’s Sahel region, boosting the total number of French forces to 5,100.

Most of them will be deployed to the border regions between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – an area especially badly hit by jihadist attacks.

But regional and international forces, plus armed drones and other forms of support, seem incapable of stemming the violence.

Attacks by militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have significantly increased in the past year, causing more than half a million people to flee their homes.

The Sahel region, a semi-arid stretch of land just south of the Sahara Desert, has been a frontline in the war against Islamist militancy for almost a decade.

French President Emmanuel Macron last month hosted a summit with his counterparts from the Sahel belt of western Africa to discuss the military campaign against jihadist militants.

Source: BBC