NIGER/MALI: Leaders seek funding for new anti-jihadist force

Mali and Niger, two of the West African nations worst affected by jihadist violence, appealed on Wednesday for international funding for a regional force they have set up to counter Islamist insurgencies. Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou said the force assembled by the G5 Sahel bloc — Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, […]

Mali and Niger, two of the West African nations worst affected by jihadist violence, appealed on Wednesday for international funding for a regional force they have set up to counter Islamist insurgencies.

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou said the force assembled by the G5 Sahel bloc — Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad — was crucial to fighting a threat that went well beyong their borders.

“We bring this combat against terrorism not only to protect our own people and countries but for the whole world,” Issoufou told a news conference in Niger’s capital Niamey.

“For terrorism knows no border. It will go to Europe, it will go to the United States,” he said. “The world has to be mobilized.”