Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita today inaugurated the headquarters for a planned five- nation force to combat jihadists in the Sahel region, officials who attended the ceremony told AFP.
The HQ is located in central Mali at Sevare, about 10 kilometres east of Mopti, in a region that has been hit by a wave of terror attacks in recent months.
The five-battalion, 5,000-strong force, decided at a summit in Bamako on July 2, is to comprise troops from Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.
It has an annual budget of about USD 496 million a year, although so far only about USD 127 million has been pledged. The participating countries rank among the poorest nations in the world.
A plan seen by AFP today calls for the first battalion to be operational this month, and in October "cross-border operations will take place in the tri-frontier zone" shared by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
France, which has 4,000 troops serving across the Sahel region with a counter-terror mandate, is a major backer of the initiative.
French President Emmanuel Macron has been pitching for support from other European nations, especially Germany.
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