The host of an African Union summit that opened yesterday warned that a deadly attack against a regional anti-terror force has exposed regional security failings.
A suicide bomber in a vehicle painted in UN colours killed two soldiers and a civilian in the attack on the headquarters of the so-called G5 force headquarters in the Malian town of Sevare on Friday.
It was the first attack on the headquarters of the five-nation force, which was set up with French backing in 2017 to fight insurgents and criminal groups in the vast and unstable Sahel region.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, whose country is part of the G5 and is hosting the two-day AU summit, said the bombing “hit the heart” of the region’s security and lashed out at a lack of international help.
Aziz said the G5 was a “sovereign initiative” of Sahel states that face not only security problems but drought, poverty, unemployment and trafficking.
“We are not at all satisfied with the help we are getting. We also feel that the doors of the United Nations are closed.” 
Security will be high on the agenda at the AU summit in Nouakchott being attended by more than 40 African heads of state and government as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, who will meet G5 leaders to focus on progress made by the force.
African leaders will also look at a planned ceasefire in South Sudan’s civil war and at the detente between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose relations have been poisoned for decades.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who holds the presidency of the 55-nation AU, will make a call to promote free trade.
Currently, African countries only conduct about 16 % of their business with each other, the smallest amount of intra-regional trade compared to Latin America, Asia, North America and Europe.
Meanwhile, discussing the flow of migrants from Africa to Europe, Aziz told France 24 it was a “result of the ‘destruction’ of Libya by Western strikes”.
“I am not saying that all responsibility lies with Europe, we must deal with the problem upstream,” said the former general who took power in a coup in 2008 and has since been elected twice.




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