Harare — Mauritania and Chad have cleared the way for the disintegration of the G5 Sahel coalition, which was formed in 2014, to address extremists and other issues in the sub-region, Al Jazeera reports.
This follows the withdrawal of the other three members, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. After Mali’s exit was announced earlier, Mauritania and Chad said they “take note of and respect the sovereign decision” of Burkina Faso and Niger to quit.
Though analysts had predicted it would not survive long, the military chiefs of Burkina Faso and Niger did not specifically call for its dissolution when they announced their exit on Saturday, December 2, 2023. The G5 Sahel alliance joint force, established in 2017 to combat militant organizations in the region that are funded by France, included all three of the aforementioned governments.
Following a military takeover, Mali abandoned the inactive organization, and the force’s former leader in Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, declared it to be “dead” in May 2022. Since the coups, ties between France and the three states deteriorated. After being ordered to withdraw its ambassador and troops from Mali and Burkina Faso, France is now engaged in a tense standoff with the junta in control of Niger.