PRAGUE, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Czech government announced in a press release on Wednesday that it will send one million euros (about 1.23 million U.S. dollars) to support the units of five African countries that protect their borders on the southern edge of Sahara with the help of the African Union and the United Nations.
In the press release, the Czech government said that the money should serve to prevent a migration crisis. This sum from the Defence Ministry budget will be sent to the financial mechanism EU African Peace Facility in order to support the G5 Sahel Joint Force.
The EU Fund for Africa was set up in 2015 at a summit in Malta where the leaders of European and African countries met for the migration crisis. The joint units of the five Sahel countries, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad, were set up in February 2014 to improve the coordination of these countries in the field of defense.
They provide defence on their border area and also focus on the fight against terrorism. The Czech government said that the Sahel has become a key region, both for the EU and for the Czech Republic, in terms of security and transit illegal migration.
The Czech government has already approved in January to send about 225 million crowns (about 11 million U.S. dollars) to the EU's fund for Africa to help resolve the migrant crisis in Libya.
It said in the press release that it continued its step to curb migrant flows. (1 euro=1.23 dollars; 1 dollar=20.5 crowns)
