OTTAWA — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says containing the spread of terrorism across Africa is a consideration as Canada mulls where it will contribute to a UN peacekeeping mission.
Sources say a mission to Mali, where more than a dozen peacekeepers have been killed this year, is very much on the government's radar.
But Sajjan says the government has yet to make up its mind about where to send its peacekeepers in order to fulfill a major foreign policy priority.
Sajjan says Canada wants to have an impact wherever it deploys troops, and doesn't simply want to send a contingent of troops to a specific country for its own sake.
He is speaking from Kuwait after visiting Canadian troops there and in neighbouring Iraq who are talking part in the U.S.-led coalition's fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Sajjan says the spread of ISIL across the Middle East and Africa is part of the government's calculation in determining where Canada's eventual peacekeeping mission will be focused.
