Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more

[davidbfpo]

The first is a BBC News photo essay 'The war in the desert; Why the Sahara is terror's new front line'. IT has a few interesting, though not new quotes. This refers o the UN peacekeepers, almost 14,000 peacekeepers from nearly 60 different countries:

Different countries accept different levels of risk. Many are simply going through the motions - counting down the days, trying to stay alive, and having little real impact in a place where it’s nearly impossible to keep the peace.

Then citing the UN Force Commander: I need better equipped and better trained contingents. I need more vehicles… to protect my people against the IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and mines and so on and I need to upgrade the training level of my contingents.

Then the trade in migrants / refugees in Niger: Criminal gangs moved in and the desert tour guides became human traffickers, carrying lorry-loads of migrants north to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This thriving industry provides both cash and cover for the radical, violent, extremist groups assembling across the Sahara.

On external funding of mosques and schools:Towering over a second meeting is a new white and green mosque, which smells of fresh paint. The UN says Qatari money paid for the building - like Saudi Arabia, here and in other parts of Africa they have a programme that provides new mosques and preachers to teach a very conservative form of Islam.

Link:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources..._in_the_desert

The references to an attack @ Timbuktu are to an attack in April 2018, so this report may have taken time to reach publication

The second article, published yesterday in 'The Guardian' is headlined: 'New terrorist threat as EU stance on migrants triggers disquiet in Niger;

Efforts to buttress Europe’s borders have left people smugglers in Niger jobless and ripe for exploitation by jihadist groups'. It opens with:

Thousands of men who transported, fed, and housed the hundreds of thousands of migrants who used to cross the impoverished west African country are now unemployed and could easily be exploited by one of the major jihadist groups operating in the region, said leaders in the remote former migrant hub of Agadez.

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/global-d...odes-ill-niger

That is simply weird and appears to contradict the BBC report!

I will copy this to the Mali and UN Peacekeeping threads for reference.

[davidbfpo]

In mid-July 2018 the UK deployed three RAF Chinooks to support the French in Mali, for a year; they became operational a month later and this all was publicly announced. One RUSI expert expressed concern at the commitment, cited in part:

They may have thought the commitment of a few helicopters meant 'we've done our thing', without realising it was potentially putting our fingers in the mangle...It may have looked like an easy win to the politicians, but it comes with a significant amount of risk....It is an apparently limited commitment but with a potentially large bill in the future.

Link:http://https://www.telegraph.co.uk/n...ect-european/.

Yesterday via Twitter based on a French MoD statement we learnt that:

So far the Chinooks have made 51 sorties, transporting over 1155 French troops, supplies and 83 tons of equipment across Mali.

Link in French:https://www.defense.gouv.fr/operatio...des-operations

[AdamG]

The Army has punished two members of the Special Forces team ambushed in Niger last October for their decisions before the mission and for insufficient training alongside their Nigerien allies in advance, according to military officials. Four others in their chain of command were also disciplined.

Some of those punished in recent weeks included the Green Beret team leader, Captain Mike Perozeni, and his second in command, a master sergeant. Those absent from the six letters of reprimand include the two senior officers who approved the mission and who then oversaw the operation as it went fatally awry.

The punishments appear to run counter to another narrative the Army has pushed in past months: the heroism displayed by the troops under fire. Almost all of the soldiers on the 11-man team, including those who were killed, have been nominated for valor awards, though they have yet to be approved. According to one official, senior officers at Special Operations Command believe that members of the team can be held responsible for failures before the mission and still be awarded commendations for their actions during the ambush.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/wor...ZcI/story.html

[AdamG]

Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy charged two Virginia Beach-based Navy SEALs and two Marines in the 2017 strangulation death of U.S. Army Green Beret Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar. The U.S. Navy accused the suspects of strangling Melgar in a chokehold after breaking into his room while he was sleeping and restraining him with duct tape they acquired from Marine quarters.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018...42307484/?lh=5

[AdamG]

Canadian peacekeepers saw their busiest day in Mali on Sunday after extremists with links to al-Qaida attacked a United Nations base, killing 10 and injuring dozens more.

Five Canadian helicopters were scrambled from a different base after the attack, according to Canadian Forces spokesman Capt. Christopher Daniel, including two large Chinooks configured as flying hospitals and three smaller Griffon escorts.

"The Canadian helicopters evacuated 15 wounded UN soldiers," Daniel added in an email. They also delivered food, water and ammunition.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/can...6ismedDlax3p-M

[AdamG]

A European Union military training centre in Mali, where 11 Defence Force personnel are working, remainson high alert after a weekend attack from what are presumed to have been Islamic anti-western forces.

An as yet unknown number of attackers were killed in the incident. Three Malian soldiers were wounded but have since been released from hospital. No Irish military personnel were injured, according to the Defence Forces.

The attack happened at around 3am on Sunday when two vehicles loaded with explosives approached the Koulikoro Training Centre which is approximately 100 kilometres east, north east of the capital, Bamako.

The attackers approached the main, southern side, entrance gate to the centre, dismounted their vehicles and began firing.

Force protection soldiers at the centre repulsed the attack, according to the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) in Mali.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...eF5UQ.facebook

[davidbfpo]

I have never heard of this group the article examines:

The Macina Liberation Front has opportunistically played on perceptions of ethnic, economic, religious, and political marginalization to become one of the most active militant Islamist groups in Mali.

Link:https://africacenter.org/spotlight/c...remist-threat/