Last June, when Ambassador Nikki Haley bragged about cutting a half billion dollars from the UN peacekeeping budget, she knew that terrorists were escalating their attacks in the Sahel region of Africa.
The UN Secretary General was pleading for help.
Together, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad formed a united fighting force, the Sahel G5, because of the cross-border nature of the threat they faced. These countries are home to 70 million of the poorest people on Earth. Each contributed $10 million Euros to fund their common effort.
They needed at least 400 million Euros to roll out effectively and continue operating for a year. In June, France sponsored the UN Security Council Resolution to authorize the Sahel G5 armed force and contributed 50 million Euros to fund it.
The US opposed language in the text that called for the UN to provide additional funding by assessing contributions from its members.
On June 21, UN Security Council Resolution 2359 was passed after the section on UN assessed contributions was removed. The resolution authorized the Sahel G5 without funding its budget. Instead, the resolution calls for a “donor’s conference” to be convened by the US before the end of the year.
A week later, Haley took credit before the House Foreign Affairs Committee for cutting the funds from the UN peacekeeping budget. She tweeted it with pride and there was a backlash over it. The dangerous situation in the Sahel was well-known.
http://time.com/4838459/nikki-haley-tweet-un-peacekeepers-reaction/
https://thinkprogress.org/nikki-haley-brags-about-united-nations-peacekeeping-budget-cuts-7fc52fd657b9/
The decision to deploy the Sahel G5 in the Liptako-Gourma border region between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger was out in August.
That’s where the Americans and Nigeriens were ambushed on October 4.