Burkina Faso and Niger have followed Mali in announcing they are to withdraw from an international force known as the G5 that was set up to fight Islamists in the Sahel region. All three countries ...

Mali left the force last year ... Burkina Faso and Niger said, "the G5 Sahel cannot serve foreign interests to the detriments of our people, and even less the dictates of any power in the name ...

The G5, created in 2014, has secured only meagre results, with Mali also quitting the original ... sovereignty to quit all instances of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force" as of November ...

A bomb-making workshop had also been destroyed, and weapons and ammunition seized, the G5 Sahel force said in a statement. Mali has suffered violence since 2012 when Islamist militants exploited a ...

Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso announced ... defence pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), withdrawing from an international force, G5, that was set up to fight Islamists in the region.