FRANCE said today that it would deploy 3,000 soldiers to combat Islamist violence in the vast, transcontinental Sahel region of Africa.

“Our role is to pursue counter-terrorism in north Mali, the north of Niger and in Chad,” claimed Defence Minister Jean-Yves le Drian.

“We are reorganising our contingent so that 3,000 French soldiers are in that zone.”

Mr Le Drian said that France was “in the process of ending its frontal war phase” in Mali but added that 1,000 French soldiers would remain, based near the north-eastern town of Gao.

France launched a military operation in January 2013 to support the Malian army and drive back Islamists advancing on the south.

It evicted the rebels from northern towns seized in the wake of a coup in Bamako in 2012.

The French deployment peaked at 5,000 troops, but Paris had pledged to reduce its presence to 1,000 troops by early 2014.

However, Mr Le Drian claimed yesterday that “a certain number of jihadist groups still want to regroup in the north.”

“There are far fewer of them, but they have nothing to lose. They have abandoned their lives, so we must fight with extreme precision against any attempt to regroup.”

A French soldier was killed overnight, bringing the number killed in Mali to eight.

Mr Le Drian said northern Mali remains a “zone of danger, of trafficking of all types.

“We will stay there as long as it takes. There is no time limit.”