BAMAKO, Nov 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The French and German defence ministers met in Bamako on Monday to discuss Mali’s troubled peace accord, as the head of a beleaguered five-nation anti-terror force for the Sahel raised concerns over a lack of equipment.
Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, speaking after meeting Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, called for “cooperation” to shore up a 2015 peace accord in Mali’s violence-hit north, large swathes of which remain out of the control of Malian, French and UN forces, which are frequent targets of attacks.
France has a 4,500-member military mission in the Sahel and is backing a scheme by five nations, called the G5 Sahel, to create a joint force to roll back terrorism and lawlessness.
Conceived in 2015, the force, bringing together Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, is grappling with funding problems, inadequate equipment and training.
It has carried out only six operations, with three more in the works.
“Everything must be done so that the operations can swiftly start again,” French defence minister Florence Parly told journalists.
The two ministers met the G5 Sahel’s Mauritanian general, Hanena Ould Sidi, who replaced a Malian, Didier Dacko, after the force’s headquarters were targeted in a suicide attack in June.
“We have no headquarters and the equipment is slow in coming,” he said, adding that the force needed armoured vehicles and anti-explosive devices.
“We are waiting for the Malian authorities to offer us a place. When we have no office to work in, to think, we cannot move forward,” he said.
The five Sahel states are struggling against a jihadist revolt that began with a Tuareg separatist uprising in northern Mali in 2012.
The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.
Jihadist violence has spread to Mali’s centre and south, often inflaming communal conflicts, and spilt into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Last week, Parly said that less than a quarter of the roughly 400 million euros ($455 million) pledged to the G5 Sahel by international donors had been forthcoming.
Germany is a member of a large UN peacekeeping contingent in the struggling Sahel country.
Von der Leyen arrived in Bamako on Sunday for ceremonies to mark the handover to Germany of an EU military training programme in Mali.