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African Union says Preparing 3,000-Troop Deployment to Sahel

Agence France-Presse

   ADDIS ABABA - The African Union confirmed Thursday that it expected to
   send a temporary deployment of 3,000 troops to West Africa's Sahel
   region, where regional forces are struggling to respond to a nearly
   eight-year-old onslaught by armed Islamists.

   The decision was made at the AU summit earlier this month, Smail
   Chergui, head of the AU's Peace and Security Commission, said at a
   press conference.

   "On the decision of the summit to work on deploying a force of 3,000
   troops to help the Sahel countries degrade terrorist groups, I think
   this is a decision that we'll be working on together with the G5 Sahel
   and ECOWAS," Chergui said.

   "I think this decision has been taken because as we see, as you can
   recognise yourself, the threat is expanding, it's becoming more
   complex."

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