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Bamako: A five-nation force set up to roll back radicalism in the Sahel has carried out a military operation for the first time in months, according to a statement Thursday that said troops made a “major seizure” of weapons in northern Niger.
The so-called G5 Sahel force pools military personnel from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, which are struggling against escalating attacks by armed militants.
The force was conceived in 2015 and began its first operations in 2017, but remains hamstrung by lack of funds, training and weaponry and has still not reached its 5,000-man target. The latest operation, carried out by a Nigerien battalion in northern Niger from October 1 to 10, seized “assault rifles, handguns, anti-tank rockets, grenades and several boxes of small-calibre ammunition, as well as observation equipment,” the statement said. On October 4, the same unit intercepted a four-wheel-drive vehicle “coming from Libya,” detained the five people on board and seized rifles with laser sights and quantities of ammunition, it said. (AFP)
The so-called G5 Sahel force pools military personnel from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, which are struggling against escalating attacks by armed militants.
The force was conceived in 2015 and began its first operations in 2017, but remains hamstrung by lack of funds, training and weaponry and has still not reached its 5,000-man target. The latest operation, carried out by a Nigerien battalion in northern Niger from October 1 to 10, seized “assault rifles, handguns, anti-tank rockets, grenades and several boxes of small-calibre ammunition, as well as observation equipment,” the statement said. On October 4, the same unit intercepted a four-wheel-drive vehicle “coming from Libya,” detained the five people on board and seized rifles with laser sights and quantities of ammunition, it said. (AFP)
