(UN News)* — Despite a deteriorating security situation and the reverberating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional troops deployed to combat terrorists in Africa’s Sahel region have scaled up the tempo of their operations in recent months, efforts that must be matched by a spirit of solidarity among their global partners, the senior UN peacekeeping official on 18 May 2021 told the Security Council.
MINUSMA/Harandane Dicko | MINUSMA peacekeepers on patrol in Niafounké in Mali.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, told delegates that the fight against armed groups in the Sahel has intensified since late 2020.
.
He described the Joint Force first deployed in 2017 by the “Group of Five” (G-5) Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – as a vital part of the security response in the region.