French President Emmanuel Macron and Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou on Thursday decided to postpone the meeting of Sahel country leaders scheduled to be held in France later this month, the French presidency said, reported Reuters.
The summit was initially set to be held on Monday, Dec. 16 in the French southern town of Pau with the participation of the heads of state of Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, and Mauritania. The French government had called for the meeting to address French military presence in the region as well as the fight against so-called jihadist organizations. The summit has now been postponed to early 2020.
The decision to postpone the summit was taken following an attack on a remote military camp in Niger. On Wednesday, some Islamist militants killed 71 soldiers in an attack on a military camp located near the border with Mali. The attack is the deadliest raid against the Nigerien military in recent times. The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement confirmed by the SITE intelligence group.
Niger is part of a five-nation anti-jihadist task force known as the G5 that was set up in 2014. The other G5 members are Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Chad.
Notably, violent clashes across the vast Sahel region, which began when armed Islamists revolted in northern Mali in 2012, have killed thousands of civilians and soldiers. The conflict has since spread to the centre of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The attacks have continued despite the deployment of 4,500 French troops in the region to back up local security forces against armed extremist groups that are active in the region.
Last month, 13 French soldiers were killed in Mali when two helicopters collided during an operation against jihadists in the country’s restive north, in the heaviest single loss for the French military in nearly four decades.
