France and five West African states recently agreed to combine their military forces under one command structure to tackle the jihadist threat in the Sahel region, with Paris committing an extra 220 troops. This was announced at the G5 -Sahel summit held in the French town of Pau last month where French President Emmanuel Macron met leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania, known as the G5, to discuss the push against the militants in the Sahel, an arid region just below the Sahara desert. The new structure, named 'Coalition for the Sahel', brought the G5 states, French forces and any future troops under a single command.

For more on the summit, Channel Africa's Khumbelo Munzhelele spoke to Mr Aurélien Lechevallier, Ambassador of France to South Africa. He began by asking him about the key priorities for France, with regards to relations between Paris and the African continent.