Ahead of Sahel summit, where do France and G5 countries stand?

France expected to announce Barkhane troop drawdown as Sahel leaders increasingly mull negotiations with armed groups.

Leaders of five Sahelian countries in West Africa and their French counterpart will hold a summit this week to discuss the fight against armed groups in the volatile region. The heads of state of the so-called G5 Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – will converge in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, while French President Emmanuel Macron will attend virtually. The conflict in the western portion of the Sahel largely between state forces and armed groups linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda has ravaged the semi-arid strip south of the Sahara Desert for much of the past decade, sparking a major humanitarian crisis.