{"id":60398,"date":"2020-01-31T10:50:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T02:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60398"},"modified":"2020-01-31T10:50:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T02:50:49","slug":"mali-plans-to-increase-the-size-of-its-army-to-rein-in-jihadists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60398","title":{"rendered":"Mali plans to increase the size of its army to rein in jihadists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/dims4\/USNEWS\/6837d7f\/2147483647\/thumbnail\/640x420\/quality\/85\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.beam.usnews.com%2F0a%2F334e13a4b27eb2f35a6d89b9ac53c7%2Ftag%3Areuters.com%2C2020%3Anewsml_LYNXMPEG0S1ZT%3A12020-01-29T211608Z_1_LYNXMPEG0S1ZT_RTROPTP_3_MALI-SECURITY-ARMY.JPG\" alt=\"Reuters\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">Malian Armed Forces soldiers are pictured during anti-insurgent operation <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BAMAKO, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Mali will increase the size of its army by about 50% in a recruitment drive this year aimed at uprooting jihadist groups, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plan is to hire 10,000 new soldiers in the coming months to \u201callow our armed and security forces to be much more present in quantity and I hope in quality in areas where they were not,\u201d Cisse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He did not say how much the increase would cost or how the arid West African country would pay for it when military costs already take up a significant part of the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was also not clear how it would lure people into an army whose troops are frequently killed in attacks by Islamists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The army declined to say how many troops it has now, but the World Bank estimated there were 18,000 armed forces personnel in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former colonial power France intervened in 2013 to drive back militants who had seized northern Mali in 2012, but groups allied with al Qaeda and Islamic State have sprung back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of central and northern Mali is largely lawless, and groups use the area as a base from which to launch attacks across neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>France has 4,500 troops in Mali and the wider Sahel and local international forces have also teamed up to contain the problem, but attacks have continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 20 soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn attack on an army camp in the centre of the country on Sunday and 24 others were killed when militants attacked a patrol in the north in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>France warned against possible U.S. troop cuts in West Africa, worried about the impact on logistical support and intelligence gathering. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malian Armed Forces soldiers are pictured during anti-insurgent operation BAMAKO, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Mali will increase the size of its army by about 50% in a recruitment drive this year aimed at uprooting jihadist groups, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse said. The plan is to hire 10,000 new soldiers in the coming months to \u201callow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60398"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}