International donors on Friday pledged 414 million euros ($510 million) to five impoverished countries in West Africa’s Sahel region, much of it to fund a new counterterror force.
The 5,000-strong G5 Sahel force for Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger was seeking around 400 million euros for its mission along mostly desert borders, including near Libya — the main jumping-off point for thousands of African migrants bound for Italy.
The amount pledged “goes far beyond our initial expectations,” said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. “It’s a tremendous result that allows us to begin putting the force into operation.”
The European Union, which believes training local forces will avoid risking the lives of its own combat troops, was one of the biggest donors, doubling its contribution to 116 million euros. It paves the way to make the force fully operational later this year.
Mogherini stressed that promises had to be followed through on quickly to reach troops, while African leaders said the money so far would only cover the first year of operations.
While the funding was welcomed, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou warned that it would keep the force operational for only one year based on current needs.
“It’s easy to imagine that the confrontation between the terrorists and us lasts for more than a year. So we need a continuous form of financing,” he said, suggesting that the force should come under the control of the United Nations.
“The Sahel is one of Europe’s frontiers. The Sahel is a shield, a dike that must never burst,” Issoufou said. He reminded the leaders that “security is a global public good.”
Security has deteriorated in the Sahel since 2011, with extremist attacks a regular occurrence, as fighters but also people seeking better lives in Europe move easily through the porous borders that have an estimated combined length of some 28,000 kilometers (17,500 miles).
More than 1,100 people have been killed since 2014, nearly 400 of them last year. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is considered the most active of around eight groups operating there.
But the EU insists it’s not just about security. Brussels says political help and development assistance are vital in a region wracked by extreme poverty, harsh climate, food shortages and health crises.
“We need to support these five countries, especially also to give hope to the next generations so that they have also a future in their own country,” said Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.
Germany’s Angela Merkel said the pledges showed the European Union’s commitment to stabilise the arid region: “We cannot only start to fight illegal migration in Libya. We have to start in Mali, Niger, Chad. All of Europe is involved,” she said.
The G5 Sahel operation, whose command base is in central Mali, is to swell to 5,000 personnel from seven battalions and will also engage in humanitarian and development work.
About 350,000 people travelled through Niger alone in 2017, mostly hoping to reach Europe but some trying to return home, according to the Red Cross.
The EU has invested more than 8 billion euros in development aid in the Sahel for 2014-2020. Part of that is self-interest as the EU seeks to ease its burden by tackling the root causes of migration.
