The Presidents of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, and Mohamed Idriss Deby, of Chad, held discussions on Sunday in Dubai, hours after Burkina Faso and Niger withdrew from the G5 Sahel.
The discussions took place on the sidelines of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Cop28), in the UAE city of Dubai.
No details were immediately available regarding the topics discussed during these discussions.
On Saturday, Burkina Faso and Niger announced their withdrawal from “all bodies of the G5 Sahel group, including the joint force, as of November 29, 2023,” “after an in-depth evaluation of the group and its work.”
A joint statement issued by the governments of the two countries said that the group, which was established on December 19, 2014, “is still struggling, nearly 9 years after its founding, to achieve its goals, but worse than that, the legitimate ambitions of our countries, to make the Sahel region a region of security and development, are being fulfilled.” Its frustration due to the institutional burden, and burdens from other countries, convince us that the path to independence and dignity that we are committed to today is the right path, which contradicts participation in the G5 Sahel in its current form.
