Italy's mission in Niger is to
fight illicit traffic at the request of he Niger government,
Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said Monday.
"Niger is on the southern border of Libya and our task will
be to help the Niger armed forces to control an area crossed by
armed bands", he told the Senate foreign and defence affairs
committees.
Also testifying, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said the
Niger mission would reach a maxium number of 470 men while an
ongoing mission to Libya would be slightly boosted to 400 units
overall.
She said Italy was defending its "strategic interests" in
these and other missions, against migrant trafficking and other
issues.
"The heart of our interventions is the enlarged
Mediterranean, from the Balkans to the Sahel, to the Horn of
Africa," she said.
Pinotti said the Niger mission was a "non-combat mission".
She said "we will not guard borders".
The defence minister stressed that it was a training mission.
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