Sahel juntas launch 5,000-strong force as JNIM offensive looms

Traoré promises 'large-scale operations' as Mali, Burkina, and Niger bet sovereignty on untested homegrown military amid fuel blockades and coastal jihadist expansion

The Alliance of Sahel States moved from political project to military reality on December 20, 2025, launching its 5,000-strong Unified Force (FU-AES) with a mandate to confront entrenched jihadist networks across three countries. Days later, Burkina Faso's Captain Ibrahim Traoré, newly installed as AES chairman, announced that deployment "must be followed by large-scale operations in the coming days." The vow signals the juntas' most ambitious attempt yet to translate political sovereignty into battlefield success, setting up a high-stakes test of whether autonomous military capacity can achieve what Western-backed forces could not.