Macron Returns to Mali for Security Summit
Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger — the so-called G5 Sahel — have said they are coming together to provide troops to combat rising insecurity and jihadist attacks in the region.
The G5 Sahel troops would bolster the 4,000 French troops and the 11,000 U.N. peacekeepers operating in the region.
Macron is expected to announce that France fully supports the establishment of the regional force. It was not, however, immediately clear what form of support France would provide.
Macron visited Gao in northern Mali in May, his first trip outside Europe as president, and said French troops would remain “until the day there is no more Islamic terrorism in the region.”
Mali is a former French colony.