(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
Mali said Sunday it was withdrawing from a west African force
fighting extremists to protest its being rejected as head of the G5
regional group, which also includes Mauritania, Chad, Burkina and
Niger, Trend reports citing Al Arabiya .
“The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the
organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force”
fighting the extremists, it said in a statement.
The G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-extremist force
launched in 2017.
A conference of heads of state of the G5 Sahel scheduled for
February 2022 in Bamako had been due to mark“the start of the
Malian presidency of the G5”.
But nearly four months after the mandate indicated this meeting
“has still not taken place”, the statement said.
Bamako“firmly rejects the argument of a G5 member state which
advances the internal national political situation to reject Mali's
exercising the G5 Sahel presidency”, the statement said, without
naming the country.
The Mali government said“the opposition of some G5 Sahel member
states to Mali's presidency is linked to manoeuvres by a state
outside the region aiming desperately to isolate Mali”, without
naming that country.
Mali has been since January 9 the target of a series of economic
and diplomatic sanctions from west African states to punish the
military junta's bid to stay in power for several more years,
following coups in August 2020 and May 2021.
The junta has opted for a two-year transition while the Economic
Community of West African States has urged Bamako to organise
elections in 16 months maximum.
Beyond Mali and Burkina, the G5 Sahel, composed of around 5,000
troops, includes Mauritania, Chad and Niger.
The military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso are undermining the
regional force's opertional capacity, UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres said in a report to Security Council on May 11.
“I am deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security
situation in the Sahel, as well as by the potentially debilitating
effect the uncertain political situation in Mali, Burkina Faso and
beyond will have on efforts to further operationalise the G5-Sahel
Joint Force,” Guterres' report said.
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