France: President Macron announces end of Sahel military operation

[Vergennes]

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the end of Operation Barkhane, an offensive against Islamist insurgents in West Africa's Sahel region that was launched in 2013.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said he was ending France's eight-year operation in the Sahel region of Africa, particularly in Mali, where the country's military has been waging a battle against Islamist insurgents.

At a press conference in Paris ahead of tomorrow's G7 Summit, President Macron said the Sahel region has become "the epicenter of international terrorism" in recent years, but said that France could not maintain a "constant" presence there.

"We cannot secure certain areas because some states simply refuse to assume their duties. Otherwise, it is an endless task," he said.

Macron added that the "long-term presence" of French troops " cannot be substitute" for nation states handling their own affairs.

Any role for the French army would be focused on training and equipping African security forces, Macron said, adding that the timeline is still to be finalized. He gave no further details about possible troop reduction numbers.

"The time has come: the continuation of our commitment in the Sahel will not be in the same way," Macron told reporters, while calling for a "profound transformation" and a new international force to provide security for the region.

France currently has 5,100 soldiers in the Sahel region, which spans half a dozen countries. A flash point is Mali, a former French colony that has seen a second military coup inside nine months.

France: Macron ends Sahel military operation – DW – 06/10/2021

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the end of Operation Barkhane, an offensive against Islamist insurgents in West Africa's Sahel region that was launched in 2013.

www.dw.com

 

[Saithan]

Sahel: Operation Barkhane will soon end, so what’s next? - The Africa Report.com

What will come next in the Sahel as France wraps up its Operation Barkhane anti-terrorism mission due to the coup in Mali?

www.theafricareport.com

Paid content.

In Mali, the men of Operation Barkhane, on the way out, still wipe the plasters - Archyde

While France announced that it was withdrawing some of its soldiers deployed in the Sahel, it has just been the victim of a major attack there on June 21. In central Mali, a car bomb injured French soldiers and Malian civilians. For the Burkinabé site Wakat Sera, Paris will not be unworthy...

www.archyde.com

 

[Saithan]

Mali: the last cartridges of Barkhane​

By
Morin
-
June 22, 2021

The French Barkhane force still targeted in Mali (Ph. Illustration)

Barkhane still attacked. It was this Monday, in northern Mali, 160 kilometers from Gao. French soldiers and Malian civilians were injured in an attack attributed to suspected jihadists, in the town of Gossi, on the border with Burkina Faso. Deaths on the side of the attackers who detonated, against a vehicle of the Barkhane Force soldiers, theirs stuffed with explosives. The day before this umpteenth attack in which Barkhane was targeted, five wounded were evacuated by Minusma on June 20. The victims, including six dead, according to some sources, are residents of Dinangourou, a Malian village under jihadist control, like Farabougou. The bloody act is said to bear the stamp of the katiba Macina, affiliated with the Support Group for Islam and Muslims of Iyad Ag Ghaly.

The list of murderous assaults by terrorists, jihadists as well as bandits and traffickers of all kinds, is far from exhaustive and complements the already endless number of deaths that the 160 dead had lengthened on the night of Friday 4 to Saturday 5 June. civilians from Solhan in Burkina Faso. However, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, these four countries of an African Sahel, sanctuary for terrorists, are preparing to mourn the French force Barkhane, which is in the process of packing up.

Announced on the departure of the Sahel, by President Emmanuel Macron, the French force Barkhane, does not spend quiet days. Far from there! Until the end, she tracks down the jihadists, a fight for which she is committed in this region where terrorist attacks mourn on a daily basis, populations who no longer know which way to turn. The survivors, by the millions, had to abandon land and cattle, to find more or less clement skies, thus becoming refugees in their own countries. If she encounters many difficulties fueled by the anti-French sentiment which presents her even as the terrorists' first ally, Barkhane nonetheless pursues her mission, braving, especially in Mali, and in the area known as the Three Borders. , these men without faith or law.

Regularly attacked, and even paying with the lives of 50 of its soldiers, the French force did more than keep the jihadists in check. She tried to decapitate the hydra several times, incapacitating her cadres, and not least. One of the last leaders to fall under the last hot pellets of Barkhane, Almahmoud Ag Baye nicknamed Ikarey, was neutralized, just this June 15, in Menaka, in north-eastern Mali, in a joint operation of the French armies and Nigerian. In the absence of Barkhane, it is therefore to be feared that the terrorists will take advantage of this hesitation to become more encysted and multiply the attacks which spare neither civilians nor soldiers.

Operation Takuba is supposed to take over, alongside special forces from different national armies. But this military initiative does not arouse great enthusiasm on the part of Africa's European partners. As for the joint force of the G5 Sahel, bringing together Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, it lacks at all, especially the sinews of war, to really become an effective military response to the terrorist threat. . The terrorist nebula, a formidable and feared phenomenon that extends to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea, starting with Côte d'Ivoire which experienced the shooting in the seaside town of Grand Bassam on March 13, 2016, and more recently, the attacks by Kafolo twice and Tougbo and Téhini.

In any case, the time is no longer for procrastination, even less for trial and error! The worm is in the fruit and getting out of it will not be an easy task, for countries most of which are suffering the full brunt of the perverse effects of endemic poverty, poor governance and high cost of living. While it is important for African countries to take control of their security and defense, areas eminently called sovereignty, the question of the timing of Barkhane's departure arises, relentless.

Mali: les dernières cartouches de Barkhane - Wakat Séra

Barkhane encore attaquée. C’était ce lundi, dans le nord du Mali, à 160 kilomètres de Gao. Des militaires français et des civils maliens ont été blessés dans une attaque attribuée à de présumés jihadistes, dans la localité de Gossi, à la frontière avec le Burkina Faso. Des morts du côté des...

www.wakatsera.com

Google translate you've been warned

 

[Saithan]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1413514614340390915

Seems current mission is going to be ended and a new one going to start

 

[Huelague]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1413514614340390915

Seems current mission is going to be ended and a new one going to start

Where?

 

[Saithan]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1413944161305255936

Three bases to be shutdown in 2022.