UN General Assembly
2017

From our point of view, the most important of those two issues is the fight against terrorist groups and traffickers. Until they are defeated, it will be difficult to implement the peace agreements or to hope for the restoration of the authority of the Malian State throughout its national territory. Therefore our primary objective is the eradication of those groups and the destruction of all trafficking that has become the source of their financing. That is why the member countries of the Group of Five for the Sahel (G-5 Sahel) decided to set up a joint armed force.