5,000 additional soldiers to reinforce borders in Sahel

An extraordinary meeting of Chiefs of Staff in the Sahel region held in Bamako came up with the decision to add 5,000 soldiers in the province of Tamnrasset (south of Algiers), Echorouk has learnt.

• The Chiefs of Staff of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger decided to for the geo-security map of the region as part of a new plan.
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• The plan will be based on coordination between the four countries to face weapons and drug smuggling.
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• The Chiefs of Staff also agreed on closing exists to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) or Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. More security forces will be sent to the countries’ border. Intelligence information about surveillance points and inspection will be exchanged.
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• The third decision is to rely on Algeria in facing terrorist groups due to its big role in this field.
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• The countries decided to take a set of security measures to deal with any possible abduction of western nationals in the region.
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• Security experts believe that those measures would be a “hall” against the regression of the situation in the region. They are meant to cut the way to international statements about security fears in the region.