Chad’s Deby says deploying soldiers to tackle Islamists in Sahel

Chad will send 1,200 troops to combat jihadists in a flashpoint Sahel border zone, its president said Monday, as France looks to reduce its longstanding military presence in the vast, volatile region.

Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and France are holding talks on the future of their campaign against insurgencies raging in the Sahel, which according to the UN have killed thousands and displaced more than 2 million.

The troops will be deployed to the flashpoint “three border” zone between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, Chad‘s President Idriss Deby Itno said on Twitter on the fringes of the regional summit.

Chad, which reputedly has the best armed forces among the “G5” Sahel nations, had promised a year ago to send a battalion to the area.

Opening the summit, Deby said it was time for the international community to “urgently” step up funds for development and poverty alleviation to help cut off sources of recruitment for jihadists.

The meeting, which French President Emmanuel Macron joined by videolink, comes a year after France boosted its Sahel deployment, seeking to wrench back control in the brutal, long-running battle.

But despite touted military successes, jihadists remain in control of vast swathes of territory and attacks are unrelenting.

Just hours before the summit opened, Malian sources said two troops had been killed by a highway bomb in central Mali.

The deaths bring the number of Malian, UN and French troop losses to 29 since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally.

Islamist fighters in the Sahel first emerged in northern Mali in 2012, during a rebellion by ethnic Touareg separatists that was later overtaken by the jihadists…..read more

 

Source: France24

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