The G5 Sahel* was founded in 2014 as a regional, intergovernmental organization to promote development and security in its member countries, i.e., Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. In 2017 the G5 Sahel launched a Joint Force to fight against common security threats in west Africa. Following this development, in its Resolution 2391 (2017) the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) called upon G5 Sahel states to establish a Compliance Framework to prevent and address potential violations of international human rights law (IHRL) and international humanitarian law (IHL) committed during military operations. In 2019 the G5 Sahel Joint Force collaborated with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the European Union (EU) and CIVIC, a non-governmental organization, to establish a Civilian Casualties Identification, Tracking, and Analysis Cell (CITAC or MISAD in French). The aim of CITAC was to analyze the impact of the Joint Force’s operations on civilians, to enhance its tactics and to foster dialogue with populations to prevent and address casualties and damages. The CITAC was officially launched in 2021, and in the same year allowed the Joint Force to record allegations of sexual violence by members of its troops, identify the perpetrators, and return them for prosecution in their home country.
* Since the end of 2023 G5 Sahel has been dismantled: after Mali’s decision to leave the alliance in 2022, Burkina Faso and Niger followed in 2023, and Chad and Mauritania agreed to its dissolution.
