Luxembourg Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jean Asselborn yesterday participated in the 4th Summit of G5 Sahel Heads of State in Niamey, Niger.

At the invitation of the Nigerian G5 Sahel Presidency-in-Exercise, Minister Jean Asselborn represented Luxembourg at the 4th Summit of G5 Sahel Heads of State in Niamey on 6 February 2018.

The Sahel region continues to face multifaceted security threats that undermine the stability and development of States in the region, as well as international peace and security. G5 Sahel - created in 2014 - is an institutional framework for coordinating and monitoring regional cooperation in development and security policies. It brings together Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad.

"We must stand in solidarity with cross-border threats whose consequences in terms of security and forced displacement of populations affect all countries in the region and, beyond that, Africa and Europe as well," remarked Jean Asselborn, underlining that the creation of the G5 Sahel Joint Force is an encouraging development: it shows that the countries of the region are willing to take ownership of the security problems that affect them.

It is in this spirit that Luxembourg has decided to respond favourably to the request for support from the G5 Sahel countries, in particular by a financial contribution to medical support to the G5 Sahel Joint Force as well as the construction of a hospital in Sévaré, Mali for the Joint Force.

Luxembourg's support for G5 Sahel's efforts is part of its overall commitment to the region, which includes three Luxembourg Cooperation partner countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. This partnership is conceived in the long term and has continued beyond the political and security crises that the region has gone through in recent decades.