France says it will send about 200 additional troops to West Africa, even as many protesters in Mali and other West African nations are calling on France to withdraw the more than 4,000 troops it has stationed in the former French colonies. West African leaders are warning of increasing violence in the Sahel region. This is Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.

President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré: “2019 was a difficult year for the Sahel in general and for the Lake Chad region, insofar that I would say that the increase of attacks in the Sahel, the human and material destruction that we are suffering and the unprecedented humanitarian crisis we are experiencing in this zone has made us react and it shows us that we have to enter a more advanced stage regarding the coordination of our operations.”