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French troops arrive in Mali to stem rebel advance

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  • #91
    Nahh,they're human,we're trying not to use humans.And this sport is about humans,mainly.Men in particular.They're not bureaucratic,they adapt and they believe in what they do.
    If I'd have reasons for optimism is that the Legion can beat the crap out of them in very endeavour.Be it innovation,resilience or harshness.Let's hope they grab enough of them before they melt in the desert,only to show up again 2000 km's from Mali.
    Those who know don't speak
    He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

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    • #92
      I suppose you dont like W Wilberforce either , bye bye.

      Comment


      • #93
        Tankie....

        What are you still doing here????

        Didn't kikbus tell you white rubbish to go to hell???

        I suggest you get to it, mister!

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        • #94
          Originally posted by YellowFever View Post
          Tankie....

          What are you still doing here????

          Didn't kikbus tell you white rubbish to go to hell???



          I suggest you get to it, mister!
          Tarek , mods , 48 hour leave pass for yella bitte , please

          Jeez warra wanker huh . kikass that is ;)

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          • #95
            Since the German Army just started a badly, badly done series of videos from the Mali mission as a recruitment device i've looked around a bit on what else has been done that way - officially.

            The Dutch Army has the "Dagboek von Onze Helden" ("Diary of Our Heroes") series which in 2015 did a very "on the spot" series of videos in Mali:
            https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...AKXPVaO6uc_NqI

            Turn on subtitles - they're available in English.

            Episode 1 of 8, overall length for full series is about an hour:

            (Note: some episodes include combat footage. No graphic footage, although there are dead too.)


            And, with 1.3 million views watched quite a bit more, from the French MoD a 53-minute documentary on OP Serval (i.e. on the initial entry op):


            (English version)
            Last edited by kato; 17 Oct 17,, 22:06.

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            • #96
              Black hawk down tension in there

              French vid was awesome, well worth the watch
              Last edited by Double Edge; 18 Oct 17,, 03:25.

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              • #97
                https://www.france24.com/en/africa/2...forces-in-mali
                Macron announces the end of France's anti-Islamist Operation Barkhane in the Sahel

                Issued on: 10/06/2021 - 16:44

                French President Emmanuel Macron announced a drawing down of French forces battling Islamist militants in Mali in the troubled Sahel region of Africa during a wide-ranging press conference on Thursday.

                Macron told the press conference that France's counter-terrorism operation in West Africa would come to an end and be merged into a broader international mission.

                "We will make a drawdown in an organised way," Macron said, adding that details would be finalised by the end of June.

                "We will have to hold a dialogue with our African and European partners. We will keep a counter-terrorism pillar with special forces with several hundred forces... and there will be a second pillar that will be cooperation, and which we will reinforce."

                Macron said that France could not work with governments in the Sahel that continue to negotiate with Islamist militants.

                France currently has 5,100 troops in the arid and volatile Sahel region, which stretches across Africa under the Sahara desert encompassing Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

                [...]
                This comes shortly after the most recent coup in Mali, the second in a year. Macron previously already threatened the withdrawal two weeks ago.

                Assimi Goita, the officer in charge of the coup this time and newly sworn in president (and previously vice-president since the last coup last August) attended training by a certain NATO institution in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2016 btw, and was previously attended training by the German Army in 2008.

                It is in my opinion likely that rather than being withdrawn most OP Barkhane troops will be folded over in some form into a new operation with the G5 Sahel Joint Force, possibly more closely aligned with (much bigger) MINUSMA too.

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                • #98
                  Attendance at a NATO school does not automatically confer Democratic principals.

                  See this guy...Philippe Biamby? I was his sponsor as a US Army Infantry Captain when he was a Major for the US Army Infantry Officer Advanced Course.

                  He was just this goofy guy who was loving living in the US for 8 months.


                  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-dcb93637baef/

                  POWER IN THE SHADOWS IN HAITI

                  By Douglas Farah
                  June 21, 1994PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, JUNE 20 -- The international community seeking to end military rule in Haiti has focused on the army commander, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, and the police commander, Lt. Col. Michel Francois. But working in the shadows to define the army's strategy and controlling the troops, according to knowledgeable sources, is a third officer key to resolving the crisis: Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby.

                  The son of a prominent official of the Duvalier dictatorship, Biamby is described as a hard-line anti-American who is the most resistant among the army high command to any deal requiring the military to relinquish power. Because of the loyalty he commands among the rank-and-file troops, he is particularly important in military decisions.

                  U.S. officials said they are now more hopeful that full economic sanctions will force the military to retire to gilded exile and allow the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, overthrown in a military coup in September 1991 after seven months as Haiti's first democratically elected president. Virtually all economic activity with Haiti is now banned under a U.N.-mandated trade embargo with the impoverished nation.

                  In tandem with the embargo, the international community has taken away the high command officials' visas, frozen their bank accounts and branded them international criminals. Recent hints from the United States that the officers would be allowed to leave Haiti and keep their wealth may provide added pressure, sources here said, but the commanders are reported to be resisting a deal.

                  The sources said what was offered through third parties was not a simple payoff but rather a promise that neither the United Nations nor foreign governments would seek confiscation of wealth accumulated by the high command since the coup.

                  But still Haiti's military leaders cling to power. According to diplomats and sources close to the military high command, leaving office would mean giving up a system and power structure, perfected over decades, that guarantees the leaders and their men protection and access to the little wealth the nation generates.

                  Rarely seen in public and famous for an austere lifestyle that contrasts sharply with that of Cedras and Francois, Biamby is both a product of that system and an exception to it. He is said to be generous in paying his men. He sleeps either in a small room in the general headquarters of the army or in the same room he has had at his mother's house since he was a child.

                  "Biamby is not about money, like a lot of the other guys," said a knowledgeable Haitian. "You cannot buy him off. He wants to stay here."

                  Biamby's dislike for the United States is rooted at least in part in personal experience. In 1989, Biamby mounted an unsuccessful coup against Gen. Prosper Avril. When the coup failed, Biamby fled to the Dominican Republic, then traveled to the United States, where he was arrested on immigration charges.

                  He spent six months at an immigration prison in New York.

                  "That scarred him deeply," said a source who knows Biamby. "He will never be put in a position again of having to deal with the Americans."

                  Although Biamby was kicked out of the military after the attempted 1989 coup, he was reinstated by Cedras almost immediately after Aristide was overthrown. The move was a violation of the army's internal code. Cedras also demanded that Biamby be given the rank of general.

                  Biamby, 41, graduated with Cedras in the 1973 class at the Haitian military academy.

                  "Biamby is the key to getting these guys out, and he is the toughest nut to crack," said a military analyst. "He and Cedras are a real team. Cedras likes to think and discuss, and Biamby is the one who gets things done. It is a great symbiotic relationship."

                  While there are some signs that the military unity is strained, sources close to the leaders said they have not coalesced into a split, largely because of Biamby.

                  Knowledgeable sources here said Biamby is the key figure in maintaining the often-uncomfortable alliance between Cedras and Francois. All three are named in the U.N. resolution imposing sanctions and must either resign or leave the country if sanctions are to be lifted.

                  When Francois was planning to mount a direct challenge to Cedras at a May 24 meeting of the high command and regional commanders, Biamby reportedly acted as mediator, averting a potentially devastating internal rupture.

                  Evans Francois, Michel's older brother, last week issued an appeal to Cedras to step aside and said his brother was able to make the "necessary sacrifices" to avoid a U.S. intervention. While Michel immediately disavowed his brother's statement, most analysts agreed it would have been extremely difficult for Evans to issue the statement without Michel's approval.

                  The three officers are sons of prominent members of the Duvalier dictatorship. Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier ruled from 1957 to 1971, and during that time built up a feared private militia known as the Ton-tons Macoutes. After his death, his son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, ruled until 1986 before fleeing into exile in France.

                  Biamby's father, Pierre, was once defense and interior minister as well as private secretary for Papa Doc. Cedras's father was a Duvalier official in the southeastern town of Jeremie, and Francois' father was a member of Duvalier's palace security.

                  "They were born to a system that guaranteed them certain things, and Aristide is the only thing that ever effectively challenged the system," said a Haitian with close ties to the military. "This is not about giving up power -- it is about destroying a whole way of life, not just for the army, but the nation's elite that have been allied with them. That is why it is so difficult for them to leave."

                  Another source close to the military described the internal dynamics of the officer corps as a slow-simmering pot, where things are beginning to boil "but nothing has boiled over yet." So far, this source said, "they seem to share the same understanding that survival of one means the survival of all, regardless of personal differences."

                  While wealthy supporters of the military have recently urged Cedras to resign, Biamby is said by knowledgeable sources to be offering the strongest resistance to any such plan.

                  "He is the tough guy," said one source who has known Biamby since they were children. "Cedras is indecisive and Francois is impatient, but Biamby is calling most of the shots now, and he really hates the United States."
                  That Goita is a graduate of the Marshall European Center for Security Studies surprises me not in the least.

                  At FT Leavenworth, KS, at the Command & General Staff College there is an unofficial Hall Of Rogues...photos of international graduates of the school, many of whom went on to be real assholes when they returned home. Guys like Zia-ul-Haq, Somoza, Kadijević, and a whole slew of Latin American dictators.

                  That said, the French have been doing some heavy lifting in Mali.

                  “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                  Mark Twain

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                  • #99
                    Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
                    That said, the French have been doing some heavy lifting in Mali.
                    To be fair MINUSMA, i.e. the UN Mission there, shouldn't be ignored either. They have three times as many men deployed in the area as France does, and by some accounting it's the UN Mission with the highest casualty rate since the Korean War.

                    The problem, somewhat, is that both operations virtually only operate in the Northeast against Islamist tribes. The southwest of the country is virtually ignored and under full control of the Army of Mali. Which, just when their European Union military advisor and training battalion declared them ready to be deployed to the northeast early last year, "coincidentally" went and brought in 10,000 new people both to keep those Europeans busy and to have cannon fodder that could be sent over there so they could keep sitting comfortably on their idle hands.

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                    • Thanks for the correction. I thought the fighting in Mali was under the auspices of the African Union and not the UN. Don't know how I lost track of that.
                      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                      Mark Twain

                      Comment


                      • The African force was AFISMA, deployed by the West-African Economic Union ECOWAS (not the AU). That's the one that was overrun back in 2013 before France intervened. It was folded into the UN mission MINUSMA in July 2013. Most of the AFISMA contributors are still involved in MINUSMA and field most of its forces.

                        MINUSMA currently roughly consists of:
                        • 3400 General UN:
                          • 1500 troops from Bangladesh
                          • 400 from China
                          • 300 from Cambodia
                          • 300 from Sri Lanka
                          • 900 (company strength or more) Jordan, Pakistan, Nepal, UK
                        • 1600 troops from the African Union and European Union
                          • 1200 from Egypt
                          • 400 from Germany
                        • 8500 troops from ECOWAS:
                          • 1500 from Chad
                          • 1300 from Senegal
                          • 1200 from Burkina Faso
                          • 1200 from Togo
                          • 900 from Niger
                          • 800 from Ivory Coast
                          • 700 from Guinea
                          • 400 from Benin
                          • 500 from (company strength or more) Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia
                        Last edited by kato; 15 Jun 21,, 18:56.

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                        • Very cool

                          Thanks
                          “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                          Mark Twain

                          Comment


                          • A single professional division, not even up to NATO standards, can manage to keep everyone from killing each other. Not bad when you consider that most engagements are coy or coy+ levels. It is also completely nauseating that 100-200 men can butcher 1000s of women and children without outside professional soldiers to stop them.
                            Chimo

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                            • Closes thing to an actually useful map of militants in Mali:

                              Click image for larger version  Name:	mali.png Views:	0 Size:	494.1 KB ID:	1574002

                              Useful because it actually differentiates. Because while there's an overarching organization (Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, which is basically Al Quaeda) among them it's actually a hodgepodge of different groups.

                              And the map makes one thing clear when you compare it to population distribution maps - this is about ethnicity.
                              • Blue, in Center around Mopti - Ansar Eddine Macina, the "Macina Liberation Front"
                                • ethnic Fulani sorta separatist group. Used to have their own state in the area (Macina) in the 19th century, largely confine their operations to exactly that area. Has some dissident groups within itself that were fighting early last year, although that's partially also different sub-ethnicities.
                                • Fighting in the area involves ethnic clashes between Fulani and others, from all sides (as in attacks on villages by Malian Army forces), and sees rather heavy civilian casualties.
                                • MNUSMA shifted a couple battalions into the area about two years ago after attacks on G5 Sahel (i.e. Barkhane) forces deployed separately in the area.
                              • Black, in the North, marked AQMI (Al-Quaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)
                                • Berabiche tribe moors that traditionally control trans-Saharan trade routes into Algeria. Militant group formed by Al-Quaeda that basically operates along these trade routes. Therefore also includes Algerians and some others.
                                • Were relatively heavily armed, importing heavy weapons from plundered army bases in Libya. Partly for that were sorta the focus target of OP Barkhane, and driven down, culminating in the killing of its leader by French troops about a year ago.
                              • Groups in the East, Ansar Eddine and El Mourabitoune primarily:
                                • Tuareg groups, some of which are led by the same people who were already fighting in the Tuareg Rebellion in 1990-1995. In reality heavily splintered into various groups which merge, splinter, go dormant, re-emerge... always been the case here. Groups often tend to be called "self-defense militia" or similar.
                                • Mali government has actively supported and furthered the splintering by favouring or otherwise extracting particular groups in the past, the default technique applied to keep the Touareg down since the original colonization of the Sudan in the 19th century.
                                • Separate areas in the south tend to be areas where various ethnic Songhay groups live, thus giving them a somewhat different layout.
                                • Focus area for MINUSMA really, with two brigades (about six infantry battalions) operating in this area.
                              Last edited by kato; 16 Jun 21,, 08:45.

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