While visiting Mauritania on the sidelines of the third anniversary of the G5 Sahel’s creation, the permanent secretary of the organization, El haj Mohamed has announced that 65% of the funding needed to establish the new anti-jihadist joint forces has already been mobilized.

The forces, a contingent of 5,000 soldiers whose headquarters will be based in Sévaré, Mali, have as main mission to fight terrorist groups active in the Sahel.

Anticipated cost for the initiative which is backed by France, should reach €423 million.

According to its permanent secretary, the project is on the right track and should be concretized by March 2018.

Last week, the five heads of State of the Sahel organization met in Paris with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel. The goal of this meeting was to improve the mobilization of funds needed in the framework of the project and accelerate its implementation.

Created in December 2014, the G5 Sahel was celebrating this Tuesday its third anniversary.

Fiacre E. Kakpo