United Kingdom 250 troops to send to Mali for dangerous peacekeeping mission

UNITED KINGDOM 250 TROOPS TO SEND TO MALI FOR DANGEROUS PEACEKEEPING MISSION

The UK is to send 250 troops to Mali in the biggest peacekeeping deployment since Bosnia and potentially the most dangerous mission for British forces since Afghanistan. The soldiers will form a long-range reconnaissance task group, specifically chosen for their ability to operate in small teams and in violent, contested areas of the country.

They will be asked reach parts of Mali that most militaries cannot, to feed on-the-ground intelligence back to the mission headquarters in Gao. They will arrive in the country early next year. "They will do the part of the heavy lifting. They will do the operations in very contentious areas... where we have a great deal of uncertainty. They will do operations where we face threats to us and to the civilian populations," the UN Force Commander Lieutenant General Dennis Gyllensporre explained.

Although wearing the distinctive light blue UN helmets and deployed with a peacekeeping mandate, it's privately acknowledged that they will likely be targeted by extremist groups fighting for power in one of the world's poorest and most dangerous countries.

The British deployment comes as security in Mali and the wide Sahel region has deteriorated rapidly in recent months, causing thousands of people to be displaced and a dramatic spike in deaths. A range of violent factions - some allied to al Qaeda - are vying for influence, and Islamic State in West Africa has successfully established a foothold in Mali.

Such is the concern within the British government that a Joint Sahel Task Group has been established in London to address the potential threats from what is known as the G5: Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. A regional hub has been set up in Dakar and two new British embassies will open in Niger and Chad. Close to £10m will be spent on security and humanitarian initiatives in the region this year.

Albeit relatively small, the deployment has been welcomed by the UN in New York and is being seen in the British government as one of the most significant military commitments since Afghanistan and the fight against Islamic State. Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt travelled to Mali to make the announcement in person.

She said: "In one of West Africa's poorest and most fragile regions it is right that we support some of the world's most vulnerable people and prioritise our humanitarian and security efforts in the Sahel." France, with historical links in Mali, is the biggest military force in the country with more than 4,500 troops fighting Islamist extremists. The Paris government has paid a heavy toll for the five-year commitment, losing 15 soldiers and many more injured.

Three RAF Chinook helicopters and around 100 personnel have been operating with French forces in the north of the country since 2018, in a non-combat role. The Chinooks have provided valuable heavy-lift to the mission, a capability the French don't have. That commitment was recently extended by a further six months to June 2020, viewed as a gesture of Anglo-French goodwill post-Brexit.

CANADA TO END UN PEACEKEEPING TROOP CONTRIBUTION TO MALI

CANADA TO END UN PEACEKEEPING TROOP CONTRIBUTION TO MALI

Canada will not be sending hundreds of peacekeepers to support a United Nations mission in Mali in the near future, officials said on Wednesday, a move likely to disappoint allies who want Canadians to play a role in the West African country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year promised to contribute up to 600 troops to peacekeeping operations and Canadian defense experts made three trips to Mali, where soldiers under the U.N. are fighting Islamist militants.

Canada said it would split its soldiers among various missions instead, with no more than 200 going to any one spot, and will offer transport aircraft and helicopters in a series of “smart pledge” initiatives. It will also help train peacekeepers. U.N. officials downplayed concerns, saying that if Canada had pledged its troops and equipment to a single mission, like Mali, then those assets could not be deployed to support other missions in the region.

“This is exactly what we need, we need flexibility we need to be able to allocate these resources where we need them the most,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, a U.N. under-secretary general for peacekeeping operations, told reporters. Lacroix said talks continue on how Canadian assets will be deployed, but added, “I‘m sure there’s a strong determination to turn this commitment into a concrete action on the ground.”

Earlier on Wednesday, a Canadian official told reporters the option of sending forces to Mali one day was still alive, but added the planning process took at least six months, “So you’re not going to going to see some kind of rapid deployment to any mission, let alone a complex one like Mali.”

Trudeau sidestepped questions about the likely international reaction at a news conference, saying the varied measures Canada was proposing would serve the U.N. better. Unhappy allies this year said Canada’s bid for a U.N. Security Council seat could suffer unless Trudeau lived up to his promises.

“This approach will be a disappointment to some, and the Canadian government will have to work hard to overcome the credibility it has lost in not following through on its initial pledge,” said Jane Boulden, a security studies expert at Queen’s University in Kingston. Government insiders said enthusiasm for the Mali mission faded as the extent of likely casualties and the complex nature of the conflict became clear. More than 80 members have been killed since 2013, making Mali the world’s deadliest peacekeeping operation.

18 PEOPLE HAD BEEN KILLED AFTER GUNMEN SEIZE A CAFE FOR HOURS IN BURKINA FASO

18 PEOPLE HAD BEEN KILLED AFTER GUNMEN SEIZE A CAFE FOR HOURS IN BURKINA FASO

United Nations: Gunmen stormed an upscale cafe overnight in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, strafing the building with bullets and barricading themselves inside for hours. By the time security forces reclaimed the restaurant around dawn Monday, at least 18 people had been killed and eight others wounded, according to local authorities.

The West African nation's communications minister, Remis Dandjinou, told reporters Monday that by daybreak, two of the attackers had been killed and several foreign nationals were among the dead. In separate statements, officials in Paris and Ankara confirmed the victims include a French citizen and Turkish citizen, while another Turk was injured in the violence.

While Burkinabe officials blamed Islamist militants for the attack on the Turkish cafe, no one group immediately claimed responsibility. "I salute the bravery of our security and defense forces whose engagement allowed us to neutralize the terrorists," Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a statement. "The struggle against terrorism is a lengthy fight," he added. "That is why I am calling for vigilance, solidarity and unity of the whole nation to face up to the cowardice of our enemies."

In a news conference Monday, Dandjinou detailed the night's bloody events, which opened when he says about three to four militants rolled up to the cafe on motorcycles around 9 p.m. local time. They opened fire on an outside seating area outside then moved indoors, where The New York Times notes a family had been celebrating a 9-year-old boy's birthday.

The local newspaper reports the boy was hospitalized with injuries from the attack. For Burkinabes, the attack on Aziz Istanbul cafe, which is popular with foreigners, prompts bitter memories of another bloody episode just over 18 months ago. In January last year, militants conducted an hours-long raid on a luxury hotel and a cafe just blocks away from Aziz Istanbul, ultimately killing some 30 people before being dislodged by security forces.  Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a militant group based in the region, claimed responsibility for that attack as well as another deadly assault just months before in neighboring Mali.

Islamist groups have been active for years in the Sahel region, which includes Mali and Burkina Faso. As groups linked to al-Qaida have carried out attacks in the area, the Times points out that the United Nations peacekeeping mission to Mali "has become one of the most dangerous in the world." The French government which controlled Burkina Faso, then called Upper Volta, as a colony until 1960 says President Emmanuel Macron met with Kabore on Monday to discuss the circumstances of the latest attack. The pair of leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the formation of an international security force in the Sahel region to "continue the fight against terrorist groups."

AL-QAEDA-LINKED JIHADISTS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR MALI RESORT ATTACK

AL-QAEDA-LINKED JIHADISTS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR MALI RESORT ATTACK

An Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance claimed responsibility Monday for an attack on a tourist resort near Mali's capital that left five people dead, including members of a European Union mission to the country.

The Group to Support Islam and Muslims, a fusion of jihadist groups with previous Al-Qaeda links, said in a statement three of its "martyrs" had killed Westerners in Sunday's assault on the Kangaba Le Campement resort. The group, also known as Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen in Arabic, said the attackers were from the Fula ethnic group and battled for "many hours" at the popular eco-lodge near Bamako, which it termed a site of "debauchery".

Their statement was quickly picked up by extremist monitor SITE and two Mauritanian news agencies known for reporting on the region's jihadist activity, after being posted on the group's Telegram channel. Three foreigners, a Malian civilian and a Malian soldier were killed in the latest high-profile assault in north and west Africa targeting locals and tourists, including in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Witnesses said EU and UN staff raised the alert to speed up the deployment of Malian and French special forces when the shooting began at Kangaba. Some assailants had shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), according to other witnesses interviewed. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, speaking in Luxembourg, confirmed two of the victims were EU staff, a Portuguese soldier who was training troops in the Malian army and a Malian woman.

- INVESTIGATION OPENS -

Prosecutor Boubacar Sidiky Samake said other victims were a Chinese man, a Malian woman and a Portuguese man who died from bullet wounds, while a man from Cameroon died of a heart attack at the scene. Samake also announced that a criminal investigation has been opened and that Kalashnikovs, a pistol and ammunition had been retrieved from the site of the atttack.

At least four suspected jihadists have been placed in custody while four attackers were killed during the incident, Security Minister Salif Traore told. Traore said 36 hostages, mostly French and Malian, were freed, but around 20 members of Mali's Special Forces remained at the eco-lodge Monday.

Kangaba is known to be popular with expatriates. The Portuguese soldier who died was among off-duty members of the EU's army training mission in Mali, and of MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country. A Kangaba employee described ushering clients into a hiding place, a possible explanation for the relatively low death toll compared with the lives lost in previous assaults on tourist targets in west Africa. Among those saved Sunday were two Spaniards, two Dutch and two Egyptian nationals, according to the security ministry.

- US WARNING -

Domestic and foreign forces deployed in Mali's troubled north and centre have been repeated targets of jihadist forces, but attacks on civilians in and around the capital are rare, with the last major incident in November 2015 when gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. Samake said Monday that the Kangaba attack "bore all the hallmarks" of the Radisson Blu assault.

That siege, which left 20 people dead, led to the government imposing a state of emergency which has been in place more or less ever since. Earlier this month, the US embassy in Bamako had warned about "a possible increased threat of attacks against Western diplomatic missions, places of worship" and other places frequented by Westerners. In January, Kangaba's owner Herve Depardieu had complained about the "alarming security information" issued by foreign consulates. In a sign of Mali's ongoing instability, one soldier was killed and three wounded on Monday in the northern town of Bamba, in what the armed forces said was yet another "terrorist attack".

- NEW ANTI-TERROR FORCE -

In 2012, Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda who hijacked an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising, though the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation in January 2013. Since then, jihadists have continued to mount numerous attacks on civilians and the army, as well as on French and UN forces stationed there.

The unrest has continued despite a 2015 peace deal between the government and Tuareg-led rebels that aimed to tackle some of the grievances held by separatists in the north. Despite the presence of the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission and French troops serving in a separate counter-terrorism force operating across the Sahel region, instability is growing.

France is pressing the UN Security Council to quickly adopt a resolution to fund and support a new African anti-jihadist force in the Sahel, comprising troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. But Washington says the resolution is too vague. As the leading financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, it also wants to tighten spending.

After paying homage to victims, African Union Commission (AU) Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat on Monday described "the crucial importance of the Security Council's support to the collective efforts of the countries of the region," referring to the proposed resolution. Mogherini, who has promised 50 million euros ($56 million) to back the new force, said Monday that Europeans and Africans were "brothers and sisters" in the fight against terror.

IN FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT TO MALI, NEW PEACEKEEPING CHIEF PRAISES GOVERNMENT’S SUPPORT FOR UN MISSION

IN FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT TO MALI, NEW PEACEKEEPING CHIEF PRAISES GOVERNMENT’S SUPPORT FOR UN MISSION

16 May 2017 – During his first working visit to Mali, United Nations peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix met today in the capital, Bamako, with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and other senior Malian officials, whom he thanked for their constructive and sustained cooperation with the UN integrated mission in the country, known by the French acronym, MINUSMA.

Mr. Lacroix, the Under Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations, also met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of International Cooperation and African Integration, Abdoulaye Diop, as well as the High Representative of the President for implementation of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, Mahamadou Diagouraga.

Meeting with President Keïta, Mr. Lacroix hand-delivered a letter from UN Secretary-General António Guterres encouraging further progress on the peace agreement, as well as expressing support for the G5 regional initiative, as the ‘Group of Five for the Sahel’ – formed in 2014 by Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – is known.

Accompanied by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Mali, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, these meetings provided an opportunity to discuss the peace process and challenges, particularly in the security field.

Mr. Lacroix thanked Malian officials for their constructive and sustained cooperation with MINUSMA, the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission, in fulfilling its mandate. As part of his first working visit, he was in Timbuktu with Mr. Annadif to visit the Liberian contingent at the site of the attack on 3 May in which one of their comrades was killed and nine others were wounded.

Mr. Lacroix paid tribute to the fallen peacekeeper and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. He also conveyed his solidarity when he met with civilian and uniformed staff and thanked them for their dedication and sacrifices in very difficult conditions.

140 Police Officers Return From Peacekeeping Mission in Mali

140 POLICE OFFICERS RETURN FROM PEACEKEEPING MISSION IN MALI

Kigali — The maiden Formed Police Unit (FPU1) contingent of 140 officers deployed to Mali in November last year returned home yesterday evening after successfully completing their one year mandate under the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

FPU1, led by Chief Supt. Bertin Mutezintare, was received at the Kigali International Airport by the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Operations, Dan Munyuza.

Their replacements, who also numbered 140, left Kigali yesterday morning. ACP Jean Baptiste Seminega leads them.

The mandate of the FPU include escort duties, protection of VIPs and UN personnel, crowd control and public order management and other duties in line with the mission mandate.

DIGP Munyuza thanked the officers for their work in Mali.

"You have been good ambassadors, performed your duties exceptionally well and that is justified by the medals you were awarded and the legacy you have left behind," DIGP Munyuza said.

He urged them to use the skills they acquired to effect their duties professionally.

"We are happy to be back home...and to come back with honour. We have left behind a good image about Rwanda and it's my conviction that our colleagues who have replaced us will build from where we stopped for the good of the people of Mali and Africa in general," CSP Mutezintare said.

The FPU1 in Mali introduced food security awareness aimed at encouraging MINUSMA and local security organs to engage in various initiatives to assist vulnerable communities.

Out of the financial contribution of each of the Rwandan police officer, they supported orphans, including paying their school fees for one year and giving them scholastic materials among others.

Mutezintare also noted that the officers halted the insurgency in Kidal city, rescuing UN personnel and provided free medical services to local population.

Mali is among the nine missions, where Rwanda National Police (RNP) in now involved.

Other missions are Darfur, South Sudan, Ivory Cost, Haiti, Abey, Liberia, Liberia, Central Africa Republic and Guinea Bissau.

RNP currently has over 560 officers involved in international missions.

Landmine kills four U.N. soldiers, wounds 15 in northern Mali

Landmine kills four U.N. soldiers, wounds 15 in northern Mali

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Four United Nations soldiers were killed on Tuesday and a further 15 were wounded when the convoy they were traveling in struck a landmine in an area of northern Mali where attacks are on the rise, a spokesman for the country's U.N. mission said.

The contingent had left a U.N. base in the town of Aguelhok and were traveling south when the blast occurred at around noon local time (8.00 a.m. EDT), about 30 km (19 miles) north of Kidal, the spokesman said.

He had earlier said the convoy was traveling north from Kidal when it struck the mine.

"The toll is four dead and 15 wounded, including six very seriously," Olivier Salgado told Reuters. "This is only a provisional toll because we do not know what will happen with six of the very seriously wounded."

Salgado said the mission, known by its acronym MINUSMA, was investigating the incident but could not immediately say who was responsible for the attack.

The soldiers were part of a contingent from Chad, said a U.N. official who asked not to be named.

U.N. peacekeepers continue to be targeted in sporadic attacks despite a successful French-led intervention last year that drove back Islamists who had taken advantage of a separatist uprising to seize Mali's desert north.

Tuesday's incident occurred amid a rise in violence against U.N. personnel and vehicles in and around Aguelhok. Thirteen rockets have been fired at the town's U.N. base alone over the past week though those attacks had not resulted in any deaths or injuries, Salgado said.

"I am outraged by such a surge in violence against peace soldiers," MINUSMA head Albert Koenders said in a statement. "A peace process is under way, some people want to compromise it. This is totally unacceptable and irresponsible."

Al-Qaeda linked Islamist fighters swept in and took control of the northern two-thirds of Mali in early 2012 following a military coup in the capital Bamako, which was launched in reaction to an uprising by Tuareg separatists.

The Tuareg groups, who initially worked with the Islamists, were later sidelined by their better armed allies. They were not targeted by last year's French-led military operation, and the government in Bamako agreed to open talks with them.

Negotiations between government representatives and the Tuareg groups resumed in Algeria's capital Algiers this week.

Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said on Monday that the government hoped to clinch a preliminary peace deal with the separatists within eight weeks.

Mali's northern desert region - called Azawad by the Tuareg rebels - has risen up four times in the last 50 years, with various groups fighting for independence or self-rule.

(Reporting by Souleymane Ag Anara; Additional reporting and writing by Joe Bavier,; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Angus MacSwan)

Suicide bomber kills four Chadian UN peacekeepers in Mali

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS FOUR CHADIAN U.N PEACEKEEPERS IN MALI

A suicide bomber killed four Chadian United Nations peacekeepers at a military camp in rebel-infested north-eastern Mali on Wednesday, the UN and the government said. The bomber struck in a car laden with explosives at the entrance to the barracks, which houses local soldiers as well as international troops from the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping force.

"Today at 3:30pm (1500 GMT), a suicide car exploded at the entrance of the MINUSMA camp... The attack killed four peacekeepers," a statement from the force said. "In addition, the attack wounded 10 people who are currently being evacuated, including six from MINUSMA and four members of the Malian armed forces."

The statement quoted MINUSMA chief Bert Koenders condemning "this cowardly and odious attack" in Aguelhok, a town of 8,000 in the Ifoghas mountain range. "I am shocked that brave peacekeepers have again been targeted. This attack will not deter the MINUSMA from its mission of peace and security in Mali," Koenders said.

A Malian military source had earlier said that "at least four Chadian and Malian soldiers" were killed. But a ministry of defence source told Malians initially thought to be among the dead turned out to have survived and were severely wounded, while the dead were all Chadian.

It was the first major attack in the Kidal region since the government and the three main rebel groups signed a ceasefire deal in May to end days of violence in the northern desert. Around 50 Chadians have been killed since the country's leader Idriss Deby sent troops to fight Islamist rebels alongside French troops in Mali at the beginning of last year. Kidal is the cradle of Mali's Tuareg separatist movement, which wants independence for a vast swathe of northern desert it calls "Azawad" and which has launched several rebellions since the 1960s.

- Security challenges 'enormous' -

The country descended into crisis in January 2012, when Tuareg rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad launched the latest insurgency. A subsequent coup in Bamako led to chaos, and militants linked to Al-Qaeda overpowered the Tuareg to seize control of Mali's northern desert.

A French-led military operation launched in January 2013 ousted the extremists, but sporadic attacks by armed Islamists have continued, and the Tuareg demand for autonomy has not been resolved. The UN has acknowledged that it is struggling to get peacekeeping troops into place in Mali as France seeks to draw down its force battling militant groups.

Almost 18 months after France intervened to halt an Islamist march on Mali's capital, the UN mission in the impoverished west African nation has just 7,250 of the 11,200 troops it intended to build up, according its website. France is winding down its force from a peak of around 5,000 soldiers but is to keep 1,000 troops in Mali beyond July.

The UN peacekeepers took over security in July last year from a pan-African military mission which had been supporting the French troops. MINUSMA chief Koenders told the UN Security Council in January the security challenges in Mali are still "enormous".

A roadside bomb struck a UN vehicle in northern Mali in April, wounding a peacekeeper from Guinea during a UN visit of foreign dignitaries. Two Senegalese peacekeepers were killed six months ago when a car filled with explosives crashed into a bank in Kidal's regional capital also called Kidal -that was being guarded by MINUSMA troops.

A Malian jihadist, Sultan Ould Badi, claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it payback for African countries' military support for French operations on the continent.