Friday 26 / April / 2024
Paris: French president Emmanuel Macron is expected to reveal the plans after holding talks with Niger's president. French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce concrete projects to help the development of Niger after holding talks with President Mahamadou Issoufou and his ministers at the presidential palace in Niamey on Saturday (December 23). Macron spent the night at the French air base in Niamey for an early Christmas dinner with the 500 French troops stationed there to fight. Macron said he wanted to accelerate plans to build the African counter-terrorism force, known as the G5 Sahel, which will eventually enable French soldiers in the region to leave, and added he wanted to work on the development of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world. Around 4,000 French troops remain in West Africa's Sahel region as part of Operation Barkhane, a cross-border anti-terrorism operation mostly in Mali and Niger. Militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda, seized Mali's desert north in 2012. French-led forces scattered them the following year but they still attack peacekeepers, soldiers and civilian targets in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
