- ALGIERS, Algeria: A newspaper reports that Niger’s foreign minister doubts the effectiveness to date of Saharan countries’ military cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
Mohamed Bazoum’s comments, published Thursay in the independent Algerian daily Liberte, come as Algeria, Niger, Mali and Mauritania renewed their pledge to work together during a security conference this week.
The paper says Bazoum complained that the joint military command for the four nations formed in 2010 has yet to “execute a single concrete operation.”
Foreign ministers for the four countries, together with delegations from 35 others including US and France, were in Algiers for the two-day conference. Much of the focus was on defeating armed smugglers and the North African branch of Al-Qaeda.