During his trip this Saturday, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, current President of the G5 Sahel, will visit the G5 Sahel Force Command Post (PC), based in Sévaré military camp, and headed by General Didier Dacko, « new strongman of the Sahel ».
Mali is home to the regional anti-terrorist force launched at the beginning of July during an extraordinary summit meeting in Bamako, the heads of State of the G5 Sahel and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as guest of honor. This is the second time that IBK has visited the Mopti region since his election in 2013. He visited it in 2014, a few months after the French intervention in support of the Malian forces that stopped in Konna, 56 km from Sevaré, the advance of the terrorist groups that occupied the north. This visit responds to a need to verify the state of progress of the development of the site to house the joint force, which is expected to deploy to fight terrorists skimming the region, combat trans-Saharan drug, arms and migrants trafficking.
At the extraordinary summit in Bamako, IBK said that this force of 5,000 military, police and civilian should cost 423 million euros. In early June, at the meeting of G5 Sahel ministers in Bamako, the European Union had decided to support the force to the tune of 50 million euros, or 10% of the budget according to some estimates. It will first be deployed in the Liptako Gourma region (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso), facing the emergence of terrorist groups, notably the Katiba Macina of the Fulani preacher, Hamadoun Kouffa, who is rampant in the Mopti region.
Challenge Kouffa
The Mopti region has become a sanctuary for terrorists in addition to inter-communal conflicts. More and more voices are emerging to call on the government to negotiate with Hamadoun Kouffa and Iyad Ag Ghaly, who recently formed a a coalition of jihadists under the banner of AQIM in the perspective of a rivalry with the Islamic State in the Sahel. For President Keïta, there is no question in negotiating with Iyad Ag Ghaly and Hamadoun Kouffa. « On his way to Mopti, IBK wants to challenge Kouffa », says the blogger, living in Mopti.
Sahelien.com