G5 Sahel or G5S (french: G5 du Sahel) is an institutional framework for coordination of regional cooperation in development policies and security matters in west Africa. It was formed on 16 February 2014 in
, Mauritania, at a summit of five Sahel countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. It adopted a convention of establishment on 19 December 2014, and is permanently seated in Mauritania. The coordination is organised on different levels. The military aspect is coordinated by the respective countries' Chiefs of Staff. The purpose of G5 Sahel is to strengthen the bond between economic development and security, and together battle the threat of jihadist organizations operating in the region (
AQIM
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims t ...
On 1 August 2014, France launched a counterterrorism mission,
Operation Barkhane
Operation Barkhane was an anti-insurgent operation that started on 1 August 2014 and formally ended on 9 November 2022. It was led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region.African Union, called on the
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...
to set up an international force to "neutralize armed groups, help national reconciliation, and establish stable democratic institutions in Libya." This was met with opposition from Algeria.
In June 2017, France requested that the United Nations Security Council approve the deployment of a counterterrorism task force consisting of 10,000 soldiers to G5 Sahel. The German Bundeswehr has agreed to contribute around 900 troops of its own to help the mission. They will mostly be utilized in the Gao region of Northern Mali for surveillance purposes. The
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
agreed to provide 50 million euros towards financing the force. Russia and China expressed support for the operation, while the United States and the United Kingdom did not agree about financing. France and the U.S. reached an agreement on 20 June 2017. The next day, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved the deployment of a G5 Sahel counterterrorism task force. On 29 June, French Foreign Affairs Minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian
Jean-Yves Le Drian (; born 30 June 1947) is a French politician who served as Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the governments of Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex (2017–2022) and as Minister of Defence under Presi ...
announced that the French military would cooperate with G5 Sahel.
Member states
See also
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Pan Sahel Initiative The Pan-Sahel Initiative, according to a November 7, 2002, by the Office of Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State, was "a State-led effort to assist Mali, Niger, Chad, and Mauritania in detecting and responding to suspicious movement of pe ...