Credit:  Forcesarmeesmaliennes /  L’Armée Malienne – Mon Armée facebook.   Jihadists in central Mali killed five troops from the Malian Armed Forces Aug. 21 , 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW  YORK –  Five soldiers  from the Malian Armed  Forces (FAMA) were killed in central Mali last week  when their convoy was ambushed by jihadists.  And the week before,  gunmen killed 24 soldiers in an attack on an army unit in neighboring Burkina Faso.  In May, the United Nation Security Council held a briefing on the Joint Force of the Group of five for the Sahel  on the security situation in the region.  In March,  more than 150 Fulani  were massacred as there seems to be no end in sight to ethnic and jihadist violence in west African nation Mali, despite the presence of thousands of French and UN Peacekeepers. The horrific attack occurred right at the moment  UN Security Council members were meeting in the west African nation on the future of the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) that was renewed June 30, 2019 through June 2020.  At last May’s Security council meeting,  amid the spate of terrorist attacks and the uptick in intercommunal violence in Africa’s Sahel region, top security and peacebuilding officials called upon the Security Council  to support efforts to make the G5 Sahel Joint Force fully operational by ensuring it receives sustainable and predicable funding and resources.  The G5 Sahel Joint Force was launched in 2017 by Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Mali to unite their efforts to address common security threats in the region. Despite international pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support, funds have been slow to arrive, and lack of training,  poor equipment, have undermined the G5 Sahel Joint Force initiative. In addition,  the U.S. strongly opposes new U.N. funding for peacekeeping initiatives led by African organizations.

“The Secretary‑General has been very much focusing on ensuring that the so‑called G5 Sahel force has the support that it needs, the financial support that it needs.  He calls on countries to make sure that the financing for this force is regular and predictable and that the international community do what it can to help support those countries that are on the front lines.” 

– Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for  UN Secretary-General  António  Guterres ,  said. 

Credit: Gary Raynaldo  /  Stéphane Dujarric,  Spokesperson for the  UN Secretary-General,  at press conference at world headquarters in New York  Aug. 26, 2019. 

 A Purely Military Approach Cannot Resolve the Crisis:  UN Security Council Member  Equatorial Guinea

Credit:  Forcesarmeesmaliennes /  L’Armée Malienne – Mon Armée facebook. 

“The Joint Force must also do more than combat terrorism in the long term, since a purely military approach cannot resolve the crisis.  With a massive military presence deployed from many countries operating in the Sahel, terrorists are preying on the situation, feeding a vicious cycle of violence.”

-Anatolio Ndong Mba, Permanent Representative of Equatorial Guinea to UN stated at UN Security Council meeting on the G5-Sahel Joint Force May  16, 2019.

It appears that Mr. Mba hit the nail on the  head, by pointing out to the Security Council that solely relying on an international military coalition is not the best solution to the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Sahel region. One has to only look to the ongoing deadly violence in Afghanistan and Iraq despite an international coalition that included NATO deployed more than 20 years ago to combat terrorism.