France will deploy 3,000 soldiers to combat terrorism in the vast and largely lawless Sahel region of Africa, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday.

France will deploy 3,000 soldiers to combat terrorism in the vast and largely lawless Sahel region of Africa, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday.

"Our role is to pursue counter-terrorism in north Mali, the north of Niger, and in Chad," he said in a television interview. "We are reorganizing our contingent so that 3,000 French soldiers are in that zone."