Mauritania’s foreign minister said Friday the five-nation African force fighting terrorism in the Sahel is facing a growing security threat sweeping the region that is not only local but a global problem that demands an international response.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, whose country holds the presidency of the G5 Sahel force, told the U.N. Security Council the security situation “is deteriorating visibly and with rare constancy” as a result of a “diabolical alliance of terrorist and drug trafficking groups,” with violence spreading every day to new territories.
He said the Sahel is facing the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of rainfall, terrorism, and “melting prices of our export products.”
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