(Ecofin Agency) - The United States has announced new fundings to support operations of the G5 Sahel force in West Africa. This was revealed, last Friday, by Samantha Reho, spokesperson for the US-Africa command in an interview granted to Bloomberg.

According to information relayed by the American media, the US will almost double the volume of its financial support to this West African force. From the $60 million announced in 2017, Uncle Sam will increase its support to $111 million.

This should let the G5 Sahel conduct its anti-jihad operations in a context where slow progress in the mobilization of funds necessary to its operations raised concerns as far as the perpetuity of this organization and its capacity to respond to threats are concerned.

The G5 Sahel, launched in 2014, gathers 5,000 men from five countries (Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger).

In May 2018, the American government opposed direct funding of this force by the United Nations, rejecting in principle “any direct funding mandate of the UN for the force”.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou