The government of Mali has announced its withdrawal from the Sahel Group of Five (G5 Sahel - Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania), the French radio station Radio France Internationale reported on Sunday.
"The government of the Republic of Mali decides to withdraw from all G5 Sahel bodies, including the joint force. This decision will be communicated to the member states of the organization in the prescribed manner," said a press release by the authorities, the text of which was quoted by the radio station. The state government reiterated its "continued commitment to regional integration and cooperation to achieve goals that are in the fundamental interest of African peoples."
The Sahel Group of Five was created in February 2014 to maintain a security system in the western Sahel zone and coordinate the fight against international terrorism. The headquarters of the G5 secretariat is located in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott. G5 member countries created a joint army force in 2015 to fight terrorist groups in the Sahel region.
The Sahel region has now become the epicenter of the Islamist terrorist threat to West Africa. With the collapse of statehood in Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in late 2011, armed Islamist groups invaded Mali and northern Burkina Faso from there. Gradually, they began to expand their areas of operation, adding fighters from North Africa and the Middle East to their ranks. The result was an increase in terrorist attacks and casualties among soldiers and civilians.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS