Junta-led Sahel countries ready joint force of 5,000 troops, says minister

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Nigerien service members pull security on a simulated village during Flintlock near Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, March 4, 2023. (U.S. Army Photo by Cpl. Clara Soria-Hernandez via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

NIAMEY (Reuters) -     A joint force of 5,000 troops from military-led neighbours Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali will soon deploy in their  troubled central Sahel region, Niger's defence chief said on state television.

Juntas in the neighbouring West African countries seized control in a series of coups between 2020 and 2023. Last year, they agreed to tackle security threats jointly after severing long-standing military and diplomatic ties with regional allies, France, and other Western powers.

Niger Defence Minister Salifou Mody said the new force would have its own air assets, equipment, and intelligence resources and operate across the territory of the three nations, which have formed a cooperation pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

"The unified AES force is nearly ready, numbering 5,000 personnel," Mody said on Tuesday. 

"It's only a matter of weeks before this force will be visible on the ground," he said, adding that some joint operations had already taken place.

Violence fuelled by a decade-long fight with Islamist groups linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State has worsened since the coups. Around 2.6 million people were displaced within the region as of end-December, according to the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA.

The creation of the three-way alliance followed the countries' decision to withdraw from West Africa's main political and economic group ECOWAS, which is still pushing them to reconsider the move that reverses decades of broader regional integration.

 (Reporting by Boureima Balima; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Sharon Singleton)