Not surprisingly France’s President Emmanuel Macron was among the first world leaders to congratulate Joe Biden on winning the US Presidency.

Paris and Washington have a crowded schedule of business, starting with Biden bringing the United State back into the climate change agreement signed  in the French capital four years ago.

Biden will be an extremely welcome participant at the climate summit in Scotland.

France continues to control the file on this make-or-break issue for the world.

Running close behind welcoming America’s more prominent green agenda , France is looking for increased US support for the initiative to fight Islamist jihadis in the that strip of land between North Africa and the Sahara Desert known as the Sahel.

President Donald Trump has effectively told Macron that this French-led initiative is to Paris’ account.

Washington’s has given $8,5 million to Chad to help it counter ISIS terrorism.

This pales next to the boots on the ground and cash contributed to the G5 comprising Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania.

The group was set up in 2014 when Mauritania held the AU presidency.

It has been underpinned by two resolution of the United Nations Security Council.

The world organization has committed 10 000 troops to its anti terror group in the region known as MINUSMA.

France has put its muscle where its mouth is with 3 000 troops from Operation Barkhane .

France stepped into drive out the Islamists who took advantage of a 2012  coup in Mali.

Things have become vary complicated since then and France could do with help form a fellow permanent Western member of the UN powerhouse.

Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, installed in 2012, was unseated in another coup last August which led to Bah Ndaw becoming become the interim president.

Further confusing things, Amadou Toumani Tourè, who led Mali for a decade during which he introduced democratic reforms before he deposed in the 2012 putsch, died in Turkey this week.

It will be impressed on Biden that Germany has provided 900 troops to the Sahel operation and the European Union  has chipped in 50million euros.

Even the cash-strapped African Union has contributed $3 million.

The world is waiting on the new administration in Washington.

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Some were on the  refueling truck blown up by the device and others died when the convoy come under attack by jihadis lying in wait.

The truck was travelling to Alatona near Mali’s border with Mauritania.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in attacks by Islamist insurgents since 2012, making Mali the most deadly country in which to be a peacekeeper.

More than 140 soldiers have been killed in the last quarter of 2019 in Mali.

France intervened six years ago to stop its former colony being overrun from the north.

It still has at least 1000  troops in the country supporting those from Mali’s neighbours Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad. 

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President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger has raced to home to deal with a deadliest  rebel attack on his country in living memory.

A military spokesman in Niger says 73 soldiers were killed in yesterday’s  attack on a base in Inates near the border with Mali.

It follows an attack in Agando, also in the west of the country, on Monday that left four soldiers and 14 rebels dead.

The military spokesman say several hundred attackers were involved and they sustained heavy casualties.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called a meeting in Pau, southwestern France next week of the G5 Sahel group to which Niger belongs with Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso.  

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Speaking at the end of the NATO summit in London, Macron says the Sahel leaders must address anti French sentiment about its role in Africa.

France is the only Western country with a substantial military presence in Africa.

It sent in troops to prevent Mali being overrun by Jihadis in 2013.

It still has 4 500 soldiers helping the so called Sahel G5 comprising Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso.

French President Emmanuel Macron says if those troops are stay there, African leaders must affirm that they need them.

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25 Malian troops were killed and 78 are missing.

Only 13 soldiers emerged unscathed from the twin attacks on the Boulkessy camp housing Malian forces from the G5 group that includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger.

It is unclear whether the 75 missing troops have been killed or captured.

The jihadis, who at one stage held the northern half of Mali before being driven out by French forces, captured 20 vehicles and significant stores of ammunition.   

Two military helicopters and at least 12 vehicles were burned in the attack.

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There’s no suggestion of  France’s operation Burkhane being terminated.

But Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian says it cannot last an eternity.

French troops intervened Mali six years ago to drive out Al Qaeda forces that had seized control of half the country.

There are still 4 500 French troops there. 

France also provides military basic against Islamist militants in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania. The so-called G5

Foreign Minister Jean Yves le Drian tells the parliamentary foreign affairs committee in Paris that countries of Sahel should not stay in the comfort zone of thinking that Burkhane is forever behind them.

African security in the longer term will have to be secured by African nations themselves.

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Delegates are urged by UN chief Antonio Guterres to be constructive.

As the new UN special envoy on Western Sahara, former German President Horst Koehler’s hoping to revive talks between the Saharawi representatives and their Moroccan occupiers that broke down six years ago.

Morocco, which invaded the former Spanish colony in 1975,  has reneged on its promise to hold a  self-determination referendum in Western Sahara.

The United Nations has had a mission MINURSO in the territory since 1991 preparing for that referendum.

Last year the kingdom joined the African Union which calls Western Sahara the continent’s last colonial dispute.

Neighbours Algeria and Mauritania are attending the Geneva  talks as observers.

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The so called G5 have a three-fold increase in attacks from Al Qaeda and Islamic state this past year, resulting in 895 deaths.

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The Stuttgart-based US Africa Command promised $60-million dollars to the West African force comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali,  Mauritania and Nigeria.

US military spokesperson Samantha Reho says that amount now been upped to $111-million.

It will be used to meet the needs and strengthen the capabilities of the force set up a year ago.

The administration of President Donald Trump has been accused to presenting the political frozen mitt to Africa.

Militarily, though, it is increased financial and logistical support for fighting terror on the continent.

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The oil-rich kingdom’s pariah status has not repelled a number of countries receiving its largesse.

South Sudan has issued a statement calling Saudi Arabia’s confession to killing critic Jamal Khashoggi honorable and reaffirming its strong ties with Riyadh.

Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister’s attending the Saudi trade gathering  known as Davos in the desert, which has been increasingly  shunned by Western political and business leader.

He was pictured sitting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Djibouti condemns what it calls a media campaign to tarnish Saudi’s image.

Somalia’s expressed full solidarity with Saudi Arabia.

Mauritania has expressed full confidence in Saudi justice.

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Macron is familiar with Nigeria having trained at the French embassy  in Lagos when it was still the capital. 

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Emmanuel Macron becomes the first sitting head of state to visit the nightclub associated with dagga, protest songs and scantily clad women.

Nigeria’s making the most of his visit with officials saying it’s giving Johannesburg a run for its money as the cultural mecca of the continent.

Macron’s in Lagos having visited Mauritania to speak about security issues on the fringes of the African Union summit and then stopping in Abuja for talks with President Muhamadu Buhari.  

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