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NOUAKCHOTT: The deadly attack against an African anti-terror task force in Mali has exposed regional security failings that must be addressed, the nation hosting an African Union summit warned Sunday.
A suicide bomber in a vehicle painted in UN colors killed two soldiers and a civilian in the attack on the headquarters of the so-called G-5 force headquarters in the Malian town of Sevare on Friday.
It was the first attack on the headquarters of the five-nation force, which was set up with French backing in 2017 to fight militant insurgents and criminal groups in the vast and unstable Sahel region.
Meanwhile, French soldiers on patrol in troubled northern Mali were targeted in a bombing on Sunday in which four civilians were killed and over 20 people injured, Malian authorities said.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, whose country is part of the G-5 and is also hosting a two-day African Union summit opening on Sunday, said the bombing “hit the heart” of the region’s security and lashed out at a lack of international help. An Al-Qaeda-linked militant alliance in the Sahel, claimed the attack in a telephone call to the Mauritanian news agency Al-Akhbar.
“It was a message sent by the terrorists at this precise moment when we are getting organized to stabilize and secure our region,” Aziz told France 24 television.
“If the headquarters was attacked, it is because there are so many failings we need to fix if we want to bring stability to the Sahel.”
The G-5 aims to have a total of 5,000 troops from five nations — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger — but has faced funding problems.
It operates alongside France’s 4,000 troops in the troubled “tri-border” area where Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet, and alongside the UN’s 12,000-strong MINUSMA peacekeeping operation in Mali.
Underscoring the insecurity, four Malian soldiers were killed on Saturday when their vehicle drove over a land mine in the central Mopti region.
Aziz said the G-5 was a “sovereign initiative” of Sahel states that face not only security problems but drought, poverty, unemployment and trafficking.
“We are not at all satisfied with the help we are getting. We also feel that the doors of the United Nations are closed.”
Discussing the flow of migrants from Africa to Europe, Aziz said it was was a “result of the ‘destruction’ of Libya by Western strikes.”
“I am not saying that all responsibility lies with Europe, we must deal with the problem upstream,” said the former general who took power in a coup in 2008 and has since been elected twice.
Security will be high on the agenda at the African Union summit in Nouakchott being attended by more than 40 African leaders as well as French President Emmanuel Macron.