The G5 Sahel force, backed by France and the United States, launched its campaign on Oct. 28 amid growing unrest in the desert reaches of the Sahel, where jihadists such as al-Qaida and Islamic State-affiliated groups roam undetected, often across long, porous borders.
Last month, Islamist militants killed four U.S. soldiers and at least four Nigeriens in an ambush that highlighted the risks of operating in the remote region.
G5 Sahel is made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania that will police the region in collaboration with 4,000 French troops deployed there since intervening in 2013 to beat back an insurgency in northern Mali.
As ISIL flees to the ungoverned wastelands of central Libya following the dismantlement of their caliphate in Iraq and Syria, such operations will be important to contain and then defeat the jihadis.
The force is to grow to 5,000 troops.
