“Pending consultation with Congress, the United States is today pledging up to $60 million to support the G5 Sahel Joint Force’s counterterrorism efforts,” Rex Tillerson (picture), US State secretary, said yesterday in front of the UN Security Council.

This is good news for the G5 Sahel countries considering that the US had been very reluctant to supporting the G5 Sahel forces (whose efficiency it doubts) since the beginning of talks. 

However, Washington did not precise how this financing will take place, knowing that it was against financial support via the UN Security Council.

The other probable option therefore would be a bilateral aid.

The French minister of foreign affairs, for his part, said he will work towards the adoption of a new resolution which will enable the Minusma (present in Mali) to provide operational and logistics support to the joint forces. 

Recently, Paris announced that these forces could start operations with €260 million, compared to €450 million sought. The Niamey command base will lead the operation whose date is still unknown.

Guevanis DOH