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African leaders gathered Monday in the Mauritanian capital for the final day of a summit overshadowed by security issues after jihadist rebels hammered two fragile states in the Sahel through successive attacks.
French President Emmanuel Macron was supposed to discuss the obstacles facing an anti-terrorist unit backed by France, the "G5 Sahel" force.
As free trade, finance and corruption summit opens Sunday, a bomb Soldiers in northern Mali killed four civilians and injured more than 20 people, including four soldiers.
In Niger, Boko Haram insurgents targeted a military stance in the south-east of the country, killing 10 soldiers. Jihadists pose to neighboring countries.
On Friday, a suicide bombing hit the G5 Sahel headquarters in Mali, raising concerns about its ability to attack jihadist groups in homelessness.
This was the first attack against the headquarters of the Five Nations force, which was created with French support in 2017 to fight insurgents and jihadist criminal groups in the vast and volatile region of the Sahel.
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G5 Sahel leaders – from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger met on Sunday to prepare for talks with Macron
"These attacks should strengthen our determination to fight terrorism to ensure the security of our people, "Nigerian President Mahamadou Issoufou told AFP on the sidelines of the summit. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, hosting the meeting of more than 40 heads of state and government, said the attack on Friday had "struck [the] heart" of Sahel security and criticized lack of international help.
The Suppor linked to al-Qaeda The group of Islam and Muslims, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, claimed responsibility for the attack during a phone call to the agency Mauritanian Press Al-Akhbar
"It was a message sent by the terrorists at this precise moment when we organized ourselves to stabilize and secure our region," Aziz told the France 24 television channel. [19659002"IftheheadquarterswasattackeditisbecausetherearesomanyfailuresthatwemustcorrectifwewanttobringstabilitytotheSahel"
The G5 aims to bring together 5,000 soldiers from the five nations, but has encountered funding problems and a lack of equipment.
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It is planned to operate alongside 4,000 French troops in the trilitary troubled zone where Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet, as well as the United Nations peacekeeping operation MINUSMA in Mali.
Aziz said the G5 was a "sovereign initiative" of the Sahel states. tackle not only security issues but drought, poverty, unemployment and trafficking.
The series of attacks in the vast Sahel region hijacked a summit of the AU on free trade, the financing, corruption and other security crises on the continent.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who chairs the AU of 55 nations, will launch an appeal to promote free trade.
Countries only realize that about 16% of their business among them, the smallest volume of intra-regional trade compared to Latin America, Asia, America's North and Europe.
In March, 44 nations signed a pact in the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) – billed The fruit of two years of negotiations, the CFTA is one of the flagship projects of the AU for greater African integration.
If the 55 members of the AU end up signing up, this will create a block with a cumulative GDP of $ 2.5 trillion and covers a market of 1.2 billion people.
But two of the continent's economic heavyweights, South Africa and Nigeria are notable absentees of the CFTAs.
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