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Macron Returns to Mali for Security Summit

by VOA News

   French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Mali where he is slated
   to participate in a summit on forming a regional anti-jihadist force.

   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.