Three junta-ruled countries in Africa’s Sahel region will join forces to create a 5,000-strong unit to fight the jihadist violence that has for years plagued the nations, officials said on Tuesday.
Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali will create a “unified force” within weeks, Niger’s defense minister said.
The three nations are former French colonies where the military deposed civilian administrations in putsches between 2020 and 2023.
Following the coups, the three countries distanced themselves from France and last year formed a confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
“In this common space, our forces will be able to intervene together,” Niger Defence Minister Salifou Mody said in a televised interview, adding that the 5,000-strong force was “nearly ready.”
“This unified force will not only have its own personnel, but aerial, ground and intelligence means and a coordination system,” he said, adding that it should be operational within weeks.
Taken together, the three countries are sprawled over an area of some 2.8 million square kilometers (1.1 million square miles) — roughly four times the size of France — in Africa’s northwest.
They lie in the region known as the Sahel, which stretches between the dry Sahara desert in the north and the more humid savannas to the south.
Each has been wracked by attacks by jihadists allied with either Al-Qaeda or Islamic State for a decade, violence that governments have not been able to eradicate despite help from French forces.
“We are in the same place, we face the same type of threats, especially this threat of criminal groups. We have to join forces,” Mody said.
“This is new, original and will provide security for our territories and for our people,” he said.
The three countries already carry out joint anti-jihadist operations, especially in the region where their borders meet, where the attacks are the most frequent.
Following their coups, the three countries kicked out French troops deployed to help fight the jihadists, withdrew from the ECOWAS regional grouping, judging it to be ineffective to their needs, and have turned to new partners like Russia, which is seeking to expand its influence on the continent.
