In view of the forthcoming UN Assembly, Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta has begun consultations with his counterparts from other G5-Sahel countries to harmonize views to convince donors. “He is racing for the G5”, assures a source at the Malian presidency.
In N’Djamena on Tuesday, September 12, after receiving the Mauritanian president in Bamako, then in Niamey before going to Ouagadougou. Three trips the same week for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. At the center of discussions with his G5-Sahel counterparts, the thorny issue of the 423 million euros necessary for the operationalization of the force. “As there is a round table scheduled there (the UN General Assembly, ed) on the G5-Sahel, it would be necessary that all speak the same language”, it is said on the Malian presidency’s side.
After the launch of the Force on July 2 in Bamako, at an extraordinary summit, the Command Post of the ambitious G5 Sahel project was inaugurated last weekend in Sévaré, in central Mali. But at the operational level, things seem more complicated. It will be necessary to arm oneself with arguments to convince the donors after the refusal of the Security Council to endow the force with a mandate. Of the 423 million euros required, member countries are only at one quarter of this sum, all promises combined. And there are uncertainties about the round table with donors as the regional force plans cross-border operations before the end of the year in Liptako-Gourma, which is considered the test region.
The other salient point of this “tour” is undoubtedly the mobilization of the few 5,000 men who must compose the force. Idriss Déby said in June that his country “can’t have 1,400 men in Mali (among UN peacekeepers) and at the same time 2000 soldiers in the G5”.
Aboubacar Dicko
