Five Sahal countries band together to combat jihadist terror

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Saturday inaugurated the headquarters for a five-nation force to combat jihadists in the Sahel region. It is located at Sevare, a Malian area,  which has come under heavy terror assault, and is composed of 5,000 troops from Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso as well as Mali. These countries, among the poorest in the world, count on the support of France, which deploys 4,000 soldiers for a counter-terror mission in the Sahel region. They expect to launch cross-border operations in October.