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  • MINUSMA is whom the local forces have the biggest issue with. EUTM still holds some respect, but it remains to see for how much longer.
    For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

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    • Originally posted by na grohmiti View Post
      MINUSMA is whom the local forces have the biggest issue with. EUTM still holds some respect, but it remains to see for how much longer.
      The problem is EUTM has to suspend training of the Malian army and national guard (due to the coup and their involvement with Wagner) they are now only training the police and Gendarmerie

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      • German military mission to Mali suspended

        Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has announced that Germany's military mission in Mali would be halted until further notice. France is withdrawing a larger force from Mali, as the junta has hired Russian mercenaries.

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        • The British have announced they are pulling out of Mali.

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          • NOT LEAVING Ireland has no plans to pull soldiers out of Mali despite deteriorating security situation as UK withdraw troops

            IRELAND will not pull its soldiers out of Mali despite the UK’s decision this week to withdraw their troops due to the deteriorating security situation.

            The UK is leaving the UN Mali mission — possibly the most dangerous peacekeeping role in the world — but Ireland will keep our 14 soldiers in the country on a separate mission.​

            Earlier this week, the UK’s Defence Minister James Heappey said he would be withdrawing all of the UK’s troops from a UN peacekeeping station in Mali.

            He said that two coups in three years in the African country had undermined the mission and hit out at the current Malian government for working with the Russian-backed Wagner Group.

            The Wagner Group is a Russian mercenary army that acts as a private security firm with operations in Ukraine, Africa and Syria. They have been linked to a series of mass murders and torture.

            Just last weekend, they posted gruesome footage of the summary killing of a recaptured Russian defector, Yevgeny Nuzhin.​

            In the video, Nuzhin was shown lying down with his head taped to a wall as an unidentified man in combat gear hits him with a sledgehammer.

            His family expressed “horror” over his apparent execution.

            Nuzhin’s son Ilya, said: “Our whole family was in tears watching the video.

            “He was killed without a court investigation. He was murdered like an animal.”​

            He added: “I started watching it with my wife. She shrieked with horror and I started to shake when I saw that.

            “The whole family cried, even those who didn’t like him."

            The Malian government has hired the Wagner Group as security against Islamist extremists with the Russian mercenaries now linked to a series of murders there.

            The UK’s Defence Minister said: “The Wagner Group is linked to mass human rights abuses and the Malian government’s partnership with the Wagner Group is counter-productive to lasting stability and security in their region.”

            A spokesperson for the Department of Defence told The Irish Sun that Minister Simon Coveney is aware of the UK’s decision to remove their troops from Mali.

            But they said Ireland is not considering a similar move to withdraw the 14 Irish soldiers presently deployed in Mali.​

            A spokesperson said: “While the political and security situation in Mali continues to give cause for concern, Ireland remains committed to the EU Training Mission and the Defence Forces’ participation in that mission.

            “While all DF deployments are kept under review, there are no immediate plans to reduce the Defence Forces’ presence in the training mission in Mali.”​
            IRELAND will not pull its soldiers out of Mali despite the UK’s decision this week to withdraw their troops due to the deteriorating security situation. The UK is leaving the UN Mali mission — poss…

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            • Well the better have an aircraft with the required legs on standby to pull out with equipment when needed otherwise the whole pc12 fleet will be required to head subsahara
              "Why am I using a new putter? Because the last one didn't float too well." -Craig Stadler

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              • Stopping in London, Geneva, Rome, Athens, Limassol, Cairo, Jeddah, Khartoum, Addis Ababa, Entebbe, Goma, Kinshasa, Duala, Abuja, Accra, Dori, and finally Bakmako.
                For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

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                • All the classy places (not)....

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                  • Originally posted by gaff85 View Post
                    Well the better have an aircraft with the required legs on standby to pull out with equipment when needed otherwise the whole pc12 fleet will be required to head subsahara
                    If they rivet the four aircraft together, then you'll have a four engined transport aircraft with four cargo spaces, eight pilots, four loadies and loads of wheels and cheaper than a C130. What could possibly go wrong??!!

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                    • Something from the IT on continuing the mission:

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                      • Useful update on many things African including Mail:

                        https://www.key.aero/article/us-afri...er-heard-about

                        Behind a paywall, here’s the part on Mail:
                        Mali update


                        In West Africa’s Mali, conditions are very different. The French last August abandoned the Bamako government after Putin’s mercenary Wagner Group took over responsibility for national security. However, things have not worked out as planned, and the Jihadist irregular forces have made massive gains.

                        Had this been a strictly ground-orientated conflict, Moscow might have managed, but President Emmanuel Macron also moved all his air assets out of the country, followed by several allied air force units, including those of the RAF and the Canadians.

                        Both countries each had three Chinooks in Mali, including the British HC5/HC6 heavy lifts, all of which became the mainstay of operational logistics for large airlifting jobs, including troop movements. But these heavies are now also gone, as are five Canadian Bell CH-14 Griffon helicopter gunships. Russian pilots are not performing well on African UN assignments this aircraft crashed at Mali's Gao airport Al Ventner
                        Bamako’s immediate problem is that Putin gave his personal assurance that Wagner Force would arrive with a sizeable Russian air force detachment, which has not happened. Though the Mali Air Force has been gradually enlarged, it still lacks the almost two dozen chopper gunships that the French deployed, together with an extensive array of ground and supply units to service them.

                        As with old Soviet customs, the true strength of the Mali Air Force is swathed in secrecy, but that kind of security is difficult to maintain in a country with only three or four major air bases and where most movements are by road, largely controlled by the rebels. Also, most of the non-military aircraft in Mali’s skies are flown either by UN pilots or contract aviators, and they are not averse to looking around...

                        The situation is serious, to the extent that when the French were still active in Mali, most of the fighting was concentrated in and around the southeastern ‘Disputed Zone’ where its frontiers conjoin with those of the Niger Republic and Burkina Faso, about 600 miles from the capital. That region was served by one of the biggest operational airports in West Africa at Gao, today a sad reflection of the once proud military base it once was.

                        The present state of the war is that the rebels are now active almost a thousand miles to the west, all the way to the borders of Senegal and the Republic of Guinea. In the process, the Jihadists have managed to surround the country’s capital, something that had never happened in more than a decade of war under French command.

                        It is instructive in this era of modern insurgencies that the insurgents have achieved all that without a single aircraft of their own, a situation that reflects an almost culpable inadequacy on the part of what the Russians originally promised.

                        A recent report published in the United States headed ‘No safe havens – the growing militant threat to Bamako and southern Mali’, encapsulates the security debacle in detail.

                        It declares that there are currently “high terrorism risks” in areas around Bamako, as well as in the capital itself. It also suggests that these will persist as insurgent strikes will likely become more frequent and widespread. The report goes on: “The rebel group Nusrat-al-Islam – or more commonly JNIM – is unlikely to have the capacity, or intent, to organise a full-on blockade of Bamako. This would involve preventing movement on six major roads, with authorities almost certain to deploy sufficient resources to prevent this.” But, the report stresses, things have moved on dramatically from what they were less than a year ago.

                        JNIM, it says, with very little threat from government air operations (because there are so few gunships available,) is likely to start carrying out more frequent ambushes along some of the main roads leading to the capital (particularly the RN3 and RN1 roads linking the capital to the port of Dakar).

                        For example, on January 15, the group killed four soldiers in an ambush on the RN3, roughly 100 miles northwest of Bamako. “A key indicator is that the militants are likely to pursue a strategy of deploying significantly more IEDs along main roads than in the past,” it said.

                        The tactics and targeting of such attacks have been broadly consistent. Militants have relied on small-scale gun attacks or ambushes to target isolated patrols, security outposts or other state-linked targets such as tolls or fire brigade personnel, usually at night.

                        They are also using drones to reconnoitre prospective targets before attacking them, and while activity was limited when Paris still strode tall in this part of the Sahel, the Russians active in Mali today – with inadequate aircraft – have no answer. Nor, with Putin’s war in Ukraine, is the situation likely to improve.

                        Conditions have now become serious enough for the military junta in Bamako, contrary to the wishes of Moscow, to actually consider negotiating directly with the NMIR Jihadists to bring an end to the war, something considered treasonable when the French were still around.

                        It certainly reflects a measure of desperation on the part of the government, especially since the majority of their interests – and their entire army – are now beleaguered.

                        Of more concern to Western interests is that the insurgents are now deployed throughout the country’s southwestern region, home to most of the foreign-owned gold mines that make Mali Africa’s third largest producer of this precious metal. Though none of the mines have been attacked – yet – some of the outlying areas have. My sources indicate that the situation is regarded as serious enough by the foreign owners – mainly British, Canadian and American – to be looking at means to secure that vital region.

                        At least two of the companies involved have brought in private military firms to work on possible solutions, which will clearly involve some form of air protection and in all probability, helicopter gunships.

                        In neighbouring Burkina Faso, the situation is even more serious. The French army and air force – Operation Sabre – was served notice by the Ouagadougou military cartel, again at the behest of Russia’s Wagner Group, to pack up and leave. That order came through last December.

                        This will unquestionably be a repeat performance of what is taking place in Mali, because Burkina Faso’s security forces are in an even sorrier state than that of their northern neighbour. For a start, its air force is pitiable and Moscow has no transport planes or helicopter gunships to spare. Also, the country is bankrupt.

                        It was no surprise therefore that the military junta (which came to power in an insurgency that spurred two military coups last year) ordered the British mining firm Endeavour Mining mid-February this year to deliver 200kg of gold (equivalent to 7,054 ounces) from its Mana Mine to the government.

                        The owners of Mali’s gold mines are only too aware that, having established a precedent, exactly the same could take place on orders from Bamako.

                        Once delivered, the gold will be on the next plane out to Moscow.
                        Last edited by Tempest; 10 May 2023, 23:17.

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                        • Kenya especially worth reading:



                          Attacks by Islamists terrorists on US bases have largely gone unreported. Al J Venter looks at the secret war raging in Africa

                          It was a pre-dawn clandestine attack involving about a dozen al-Shabaab fighters from Somalia that, despite a sizeable Kenyan Army and United States military presence, managed to infiltrate the perimeter of a military base in Manda Bay, Kenya. One of the rebels took aim with a rocket-propelled grenade, firing at a US surveillance plane and touching off an hours-long firefight. When it was over, the two American pilots of that plane and a US soldier were dead, two other US military personnel were wounded, six surveillance aircraft and helicopters were destroyed, and parts of the airfield were in flames. The Sahel has become a Jihadist battleground all the way across North Africa Al Ventner
                          All that took place early on the morning of January, 5 2020, at Magogoni Airfield and Camp Simba at Manda Bay, Kenya, a strategic military base well within view of Lamu, one of East Africa’s most popular tourist resorts.

                          -ADVERTISEMENT-

                          Yet curiously, nothing appeared in Kenya’s national press about the onslaught, and tourists continue to visit Lamu. Anyone who asked about the explosions, shootings and massive plumes of smoke that could be seen for dozens of miles was told there had been a fire “of sorts”. There was no mention of the number of aircraft destroyed on the ground or people killed; the tally included about a dozen Jihadist rebels, some taken captive.

                          Three US airmen were subsequently awarded Bronze Stars for valour in the Manda Bay assault, including Master Sergeant Mathue Snow, for actions “beyond the call of duty” during the attack. Bombadier Dash-8 Q200 associated with US Army Special Operations Command - SOCOM destroyed at Manda Bay. Photos released by al-Shabaab media division Al Ventner
                          Blind faith


                          An American intelligence specialist declared two years ago that US strategic and military leaders were “Africa Blind”. He said Washington was interested only in what was happening in Russia and China. He maintained that Africa’s wars were obviously “of concern” but nothing to be worried about.

                          He was wrong. While the Americans do not publicly disclose the extent of their involvement in Africa, US ground, air and drone elements have never been more active. Manda Bay airfield in Kenya, immediately prior to the attack Al Ventner
                          The Pentagon’s 2020 planning documents provide locations for about 30 bases in 15 different countries or territories, with the highest concentrations in the Sahelian states in West Africa and the Horn of Africa in the east, both regions in the grip of a spate of Jihadist insurgencies.

                          US Army Africa also uses space at ‘host nation facilities’ in Theis, Senegal, and Singo, Uganda, even though those military bases are not listed on maps made public by the Pentagon’s African Command (or AFRICOM as it is customarily referred to).

                          In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee two years ago, the Pentagon’s Stephen Townsend echoed a line favoured by his predecessors that AFRICOM maintains a “light and relatively low-cost footprint” on the continent. This “light” footprint consists of a constellation of more than two dozen outposts stretching from one side of Africa.

                          To this end, there are at present roughly 2,000 US Special Forces troops deployed throughout the continent, operating on 30 ‘Enduring’ and ‘Non-Enduring’ bases.

                          Permanent bases (with ground as well as air capability) include two each in Djibouti, Kenya and the Niger Republic, as well as military establishments in Senegal, Uganda, Gabon, Chad and Burkina Faso. [B]Two of the seven aircraft destroyed in the Kenya al-Shabaab attack. [A] is a shot of an American Dash-8 on the apron while the other on the taxiway runway Al Ventner
                          The permanent US base at Kotoko International Airport in Ghana is quoted by one reliable source as being at the heart of the US military’s West Africa Logistics Network. There are weekly flights from the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, which ferry into Accra supplies (including arms and ammunition) for American units troops spread out across West Africa. The secretive USAF US Air Force C-146 “Wolfhound” aircraft like the one destroyed in the Kenya terror attack in Lamu Al Ventner
                          Additionally, five ‘Non-Enduring’ bases are operational in Somalia, four in the Niger Republic (where fighting has been widespread) and two each in Cameroon and Libya.

                          Mali is also listed, though, with the presence of Russia’s Wagner Force, it is not certain whether it will prevail.

                          US Army Africa also uses space at ‘host nation facilities’ in Theis, Senegal, and Singo, Uganda, even though those military bases are not listed on maps made public by the Pentagon’s African Command, or AFRICOM as it is customarily referred to.

                          Secret raids


                          What we do know is that in recent years, the US military has carried out dozens of secretive raids in Africa, including at least eight ‘127-echo’ programmes, named for the budgetary authority that allows US Special Operations forces to use host-nation military units as proxies in missions aimed at violent extremist organisations, or VEOs.

                          Run by Joint Special Operations Command, the secretive organisation that controls the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 and the Army’s Delta Force (or by theatre special operations forces), these 80- to 120-person units, operating with the assistance of American commandos, are primarily engaged in counter-terrorism operations, especially ones aimed at high-value targets.

                          Terror attack


                          The Manda attack is significant for several reasons, especially since the rebels showed strong initiative to achieve their aims. They initiated the action at 0520hrs by using a suicide car bomb to breach the main facility. Simultaneously, another group stormed the airstrip.

                          Manda Bay, situated roughly 60 miles southwest of the Somali border, has three main sections, which include a Kenyan naval station, Camp Simba, an American ‘base within a base’ where most US forces are housed and work, and the nearby Magagoni Airfield, the focal point of the assault. 12 Proximity of Lamu town to adjacent Manda Island
                          Their first target, using a clutch of rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) was to target a taxiing King Air 350, where two US contractors flying for L3 Technologies, employed by the US Department of Defense, were killed and a third wounded. An American soldier was also killed while acting as an air traffic controller. The attack was followed by an hour-long exchange of fire between the two sides.

                          According to the Associated Press, an internal Kenyan police report said, “two fixed-wing aircraft, an American Cessna and a Kenyan one, were destroyed along with two United States helicopters and multiple American vehicles”.

                          While no additional detail about the aircraft destroyed or damaged on the ground at Camp Simba has been released for security reasons, several US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) aircraft regularly operate from the strip. Among them, Cessna 208, U-28 (PC-12), C-146s (Dornier 328), Dash 8s, CN235s, as well as UH-60 and MH-6 helicopters along with MQ-9 Reapers. The aircraft still burning on the ground at Camp Simba was a Beechcraft B-300 King Air 350ID Al Ventner
                          It has been reported that at least two American spy planes were destroyed: a C-146A Wolfhound, and a civil-registered DHC-8-Q202 operated by US Special Operations Command. The latter was registered N8200L – see Combat Aircraft Journal, US Army on watch, May, p80-87.

                          The C-146A destroyed is a military version of the Dornier 328 turboprop commuter airliner, modified to permit cargo and personnel transport missions, though its prime role is as a ‘spy plane’. The aircraft has been continuously deployed since October 2011 and currently supports overseas contingency operations across four geographic combatant commands.

                          Moreover, its primary mission is to provide SOCOM with flexible and responsive operational movement of small teams and cargo in support of Theatre Special Operations Commands. Both aircraft can operate from primitive airstrips, often found in remote African regions.

                          As a result of the significant aircraft losses, AFRICOM admitted that al-Shabaab had "achieved a degree of success in its attack". Somalia's al-Shabaab and Mali's Jihadists both favour the pickup for sudden thrust battles in remote regionsREUTERS
                          There is some confusion about the role of about 100 Kenyan Defence Force personnel in responding to the assault. According to a report in The New York Times, an investigation based on eyewitness reports revealed that the Kenyan troops stationed at the Manda Air Strip hid in grass fields during the attack. As might have been expected, this was subsequently denied by military headquarters in Nairobi, but since everything about the al-Shabaab attack remained classified, the truth remains elusive.

                          What has been confirmed is that a Kenyan MD500 attack helicopter eventually arrived on the scene.

                          An immediate consequence of the attack was the dispatch of more than a hundred US troops from the American military base in Djibouti the following day.



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                          • Malian Foreign Minister has requested withdrawal of MINUSMA

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                            • I'm sure there are a few large russian men willing to take over from MINUSMA...
                              For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

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                              • Looks like MINUSMA will withdraw by end of this year

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