The Sahel of northern, central, and western Africa has been the ideal place for Islamic extremist groups to meet, train, and continue to utilize violence to instill fear in Africans close to the Sahel. This past Monday, the United States has pledged to donate $60 million dollars to anti-terrorism efforts by the United Nations. The European Union has also pledged to donate money. Together with the aid of soldiers and police officers from Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad they will use force and whatever means necessary to rid Africa of the terrorists in the Sahel. The argument is, these terrorists need to be met with direct action so that there is no place for them to gather and cause harm in Africa or any other continent.
The United States did not initially want to help fund this anti-terrorism effort until four U.S. military officers were killed by these extremist. France, who once was a colonial power in all five of these African countries, was an immediate supporter of the anti-terrorism force. Now that the forces have been gathered, we will await to see if there any successes and what more news to report on a blog.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/world/africa/sahel-force-united-nations.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fafrica&action=click&contentCollection=africa®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
