TERRORISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/UN: “The United States pledged $60 million on Monday [10-30-17] to a new United Nations-backed antiterrorism force from five African countries including Niger, where four American soldiers were killed early this month.
The pledge, announced by Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson in Washington and Ambassador Nikki R. Haley at the United Nations, came as the United Nations Security Council was meeting about the vast and lawless Sahel region in western and north-central Africa, where the force will operate…
The 5,000-member force of soldiers and police officers, with recruits from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, was created by those countries in February to combat the growing threat of extremist groups, drug smugglers and human traffickers in the Sahel.
With little government control, the region is regarded as a fertile haven for Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and their offshoots.
The Security Council unanimously endorsed the force in June but questions of how its $500 million annual cost will be financed have not been resolved. The European Union, which has committed about $58 million to the force, will convene a donor conference in December.”
-Rick Gladstone, “U.S. Pledges $60 Million for Antiterrorism Force in Africa,” The New York Times online, Oct. 30, 2017