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AFRICA UNITED NATIONS

Chad, Togo and Ivory Coast vie for blue helmet contracts

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“The Sahel threatened by a jihadist tornado”

SAHEL

The Sahel threatened by a jihadist tornado

As the Sahel security crisis worsens, with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) increasingly active, the states in the region find themselves in an ever more vulnerable position. In an attempt to stem the flow of jihadist propaganda which now risks overflowing into the coastal states, a number of security operations have been launched, among them Operation Barkhane, the G5 Sahel joint force, MINUSMA, and the Coalition for the Sahel. [...]

Amid Europe's gradual military withdrawal from Mali and as peacekeeping needs grow in the Central African Republic, three states are jostling for lucrative troop contribution contracts. But the UN's strict rules on equipment and training place tall hurdles in the way of their ambitions. [...] (1256 words)

Published on 16/05/2022 at 05:00 GMT Reading time 6 minutes Maxime Paszkowiak

A Chadian MINUSMA soldier parades during a visit by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous to Tessalit, Mali, in March 2013. © UN Photo/Marco Dormino

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Defence

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Assimi Goita
Barkhane
Birame Diop
Bundeswehr
Christine Lambrecht
Department of Peace Operations
ECOWAS
European Union
EUTM-Mali
Gambia Armed Forces
Jean-Pierre Lacroix
Kaka
Katmerciler
Lassina Doumbia
Mahamat Idriss Deby
Moïse Kemence Oyomé
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic
Nurol Makina
Otokar
Paramount
Téné Birahima Ouattara
Toyota
United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali
Wagner

Antonio Guterres to deliver MINUSMA ultimatum to junta leader Goïta

The UN mission in Mali has been hampered politically and operationally by the ruling junta. The UN secretary-general is now drawing up a list of conditions the junta must meet if the mission is to stay on in the country.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech during the ceremony of Peacekeepers' Day at the operating base of MINUSMA in Bamako on 29 May 2018.

IVORY COAST Defence 14/02/2023

Otokar's armoured vehicles en route to troubled northern border

The Turkish defence flagship, Otokar, signed two contracts in December to equip the Ivorian army and the gendarmerie with armoured vehicles. Both have put in orders for its Cobra II model to help with their fight against armed groups on Ivory Coast's northern border.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Defence 14/02/2023

MINUSCA still waiting for Ivorian peacekeepers

The deployment of a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) of Ivorian peacekeepers to boost the UN mission, MINUSCA, in the Central African Republic was first broached in 2021 but has not yet happened. The troops should however arrive by mid-2023.

MALI Diplomacy 10/02/2023

Fatoumata Sinkoun Kaba becomes new MINUSMA spokesperson

MINUSMA | The UN peacekeeping mission finally has a new spokesperson: the UNHCR veteran Fatoumata Sinkoun Kaba.

WESTERN SAHARA Defence 26/01/2023

Global Helicopter Service lands MINURSO contract in Laayoune

German private sector operator Global Helicopter Service (GHS) has won a $23m contract from the United Nations for the supply of transport helicopters to the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

MALI Defence Diplomacy 12/01/2023

MINUSMA plans ahead after mass withdrawals announced

With the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Ivory Coast and Benin, expressing their wish to withdraw their peacekeeping contingents from the MINUSMA mission in Mali, the United Nation's Department of Peace Operations (DPO) has been trying to compensate for the expected loss of peacekeepers.

NIGER Diplomacy 10/01/2023

Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles due in Niamey

Spanish Minister of Defence Margarita Robles is due to make an official one-day visit to Niamey on 11 January, during which she will meet her counterpart, Alkassoum Indattou, and Niger's President, Mohamed Bazoum.

The head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), El Ghassim Wane, in Bamako, on October 2021. © Nicolas Réméné/Le Pictorium/MaxPPP

Spotlight

MALI ONU Defence Diplomacy 09/12/2022

Future of MINUSMA hangs in the balance

With several contingents pulling out of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, its commander El Ghassim Wane has been on a round-the-world trip to discuss its future. He is to deliver a report in the coming days that for the first time should raise the possibility of ending the nearly decade-long mission.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Defence 02/12/2022

CAR army set to take over French military base in M'poko

The departure of French forces from the M'poko military base at Bangui airport is due to be completed by the end of December. The Forces Armées Centrafricaines (FACA) are hoping to recover the installation, despite Paris' misgivings.

FRANCE GERMANY Defence Diplomacy 23/11/2022

French-German parliamentary diplomacy ramps up over the Sahel

A group of French and German MPs and diplomats are heading to Berlin in early December to discuss the outlines of their military partnership in the Sahel region, as well as the impact that the war in Ukraine is having on the African continent.

MALI Defence Politics 04/10/2022

UN launches strategic review of Mali peacekeeping mission in volatile context

The United Nations is due to begin a strategic review of its MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Mali in the first half of October.

IVORY COAST MALI Diplomacy 03/09/2022

Bamako and Abidjan agree on release of 49 Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali

Alert published on 3/09/22 at 10:00 am - According to Africa Intelligence's sources, Alassane Ouattara and Assimi Goïta reached an agreement on 1 September for the release of 49 Ivorian soldiers arrested on 10 July.

Ivorian soldiers of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali MINUSMA parade as they take part in the celebrations marking the 59th anniversary of Ivory Coast's independence, on August 7, 2019, in Abidjan.

SENEGAL UNITED NATIONS Diplomacy 18/07/2022

Dakar pushing candidate for UN High Commissionner for Human Rights

Ex-President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, head of the influential United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) since 2018, will not serve a second term. Dakar has just submitted its candidate to Antonio Guterres.

MALI Defence Diplomacy 23/06/2022

MINUSMA's thousand new Chadian peacekeepers to be deployed in the North

While Chad has yet to send an additional 1,000 Blue Helmets to the United Nations mission in Mali, MINUSMA, the latter has just announced the main deployment locations for the country's soldiers.

FRANCE SAHEL Defence Diplomacy 20/06/2022

Technamm takes the lead in contest to equip Sahel's armed forces

Expertise France, an operator for France's development agency AFD, is expected to award a tender by August for the distribution of around one hundred new military pick-ups/ AVs? for the armed forces of Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

MALI UKRAINE Defence Diplomacy 31/05/2022

MINUSMA put out as Kyiv recalls its helicopters

To counter Russia's invasion, Ukraine has requisitioned six choppers deployed with the UN's peacekeeping mission in Mali, compromising the force's operational capacity.

Mil Mi-8 helicopters with partially painted-out UN logos.

MALI Diplomacy 30/05/2022

Moura massacre: the explosive UN report

The UN's OHCHR is shortly due to hand over its investigation on the killings that took place in the village of Moura in central Mali in March to the body's Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The document points the finger at Mali's Armed Forces and Russia's Wagner group, and could have repercussions on the UN's presence in Mali.

A UN Security Council meeting on 7 April 2022, discussing the Moura massacre in Mali.

WEST AFRICA Defence Diplomacy 09/05/2022

Barkhane withdrawal puts MINUSMA medical services on the spot

The withdrawal of French Barkhane troops from Mali and the dismantling of its military hospital in Gao means that MINUSMA will have to reorganise medical logistics for its peacekeepers.

MALI Diplomacy 16/03/2022

Washington sends a mission to Bamako to discuss MINUSMA, Wagner

A US delegation led by the assistant secretary of state for international organisation affairs, Michele J. Sison, is scheduled to travel to Mali next week to meet with several officials in the country.

The head of multilateral organisations at the State Department, Michele J. Sison.

MALI Diplomacy 28/02/2022

After Takuba, Sweden prepares to leave MINUSMA

Sweden currently has 200 troops in Mali.

MALI Diplomacy 24/02/2022

Framework for transition emerges in talks with junta

Deployed in Bamako since 14 February, the technical committee comprising envoys from ECOWAS, the African Union and MINUSMA, which is responsible for drawing up a new transition timetable, is due to present its findings on 28 February.

SAHEL Defence Diplomacy 17/02/2022

France figures out how to get its soldiers safely out of Mali

The withdrawal of French troops from Mali presents a major logistical challenge, with an increased risk of attacks by Islamic militants. The military has been examining various scenarios over the past few weeks.

The Niamey base in Niger could become the nerve centre of French operations.

TOGO Defence Business 02/02/2022

Why the army is still waiting on its Paramount APCs

Not all is well between Lomé and Ivor Ichikowitz's South African defence giant Paramount Group. The group's 2019 contract to provide Togo with 20 armoured vehicles has been at a near standstill for months.

IVORY COAST Defence 01/02/2022

General Doumbia opens Abidjan's doors to Turkey's defence industry after deal with Otokar

The chief of staff of the Ivorian armed forces has just taken delivery of 20 Cobra armoured vehicles from the Turkish manufacturer Otokar, with a view to deployment within MINUSCA in the Central African Republic.

General Lassina Doumbia, chief of staff of the Ivorian armed forces.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Defence Diplomacy 14/01/2022

MINUSCA to get peacekeeping reinforcements from March

In a move eagerly awaited by President Touadéra, Tunisia, Senegal, Togo and Bhutan will send rapid reaction forces to the UN's peacekeeping mission in CAR in the first quarter of 2022. The sheer number of extra troops, to which Ghana has also pledged to add its own before the summer, is proving a logisitical challenge for MINUSCA.

GAMBIA Defence Business 12/01/2022

Katmerciler struggling to clinch armoured vehicles contract for Minusma

Turkish manufacturer Katmerciler is struggling to finalise the sale of 20 Hizir armoured vehicles and a dozen logistic support units to the Gambian authorities, as negotiations stall over the question of how to finance them.

CHAD Defence Business 06/01/2022

Nurol Holding, standard bearer of Turkish interests in N'Djamena

Having recently delivered a new batch of twelve armoured vehicles for the Chadian army, the Turkish conglomerate Nurol Holding has consolidated its presence in N'Djamena and is also eyeing opportunities in the construction, infrastructure and mining sectors.

CENTRAL AFRICA Defence Business 04/11/2020

Gabon's blue helmets stymied by faulty Chinese APCs Free

Gabon is about to rotate troops within the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, but its soldiers there are still grappling with equipment problems.

Set up email notifications for these topics

Assimi Goita
Barkhane
Birame Diop
Bundeswehr
Christine Lambrecht
Department of Peace Operations
ECOWAS
European Union
EUTM-Mali
Gambia Armed Forces
Jean-Pierre Lacroix
Kaka
Katmerciler
Lassina Doumbia
Mahamat Idriss Deby
Moïse Kemence Oyomé
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic
Nurol Makina
Otokar
Paramount
Téné Birahima Ouattara
Toyota
United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali
Wagner

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Chad, Togo and Ivory Coast vie for blue helmet contracts

The Sahel threatened by a jihadist tornado

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Set up email notifications for these topics

Antonio Guterres to deliver MINUSMA ultimatum to junta leader Goïta

Otokar's armoured vehicles en route to troubled northern border

MINUSCA still waiting for Ivorian peacekeepers

Fatoumata Sinkoun Kaba becomes new MINUSMA spokesperson

Global Helicopter Service lands MINURSO contract in Laayoune

MINUSMA plans ahead after mass withdrawals announced

Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles due in Niamey

Future of MINUSMA hangs in the balance

CAR army set to take over French military base in M'poko

French-German parliamentary diplomacy ramps up over the Sahel

UN launches strategic review of Mali peacekeeping mission in volatile context

Bamako and Abidjan agree on release of 49 Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali

Dakar pushing candidate for UN High Commissionner for Human Rights

MINUSMA's thousand new Chadian peacekeepers to be deployed in the North

Technamm takes the lead in contest to equip Sahel's armed forces

MINUSMA put out as Kyiv recalls its helicopters

Moura massacre: the explosive UN report

Barkhane withdrawal puts MINUSMA medical services on the spot

Washington sends a mission to Bamako to discuss MINUSMA, Wagner

After Takuba, Sweden prepares to leave MINUSMA

Framework for transition emerges in talks with junta

France figures out how to get its soldiers safely out of Mali

Why the army is still waiting on its Paramount APCs

General Doumbia opens Abidjan's doors to Turkey's defence industry after deal with Otokar

MINUSCA to get peacekeeping reinforcements from March

Katmerciler struggling to clinch armoured vehicles contract for Minusma

Nurol Holding, standard bearer of Turkish interests in N'Djamena

Gabon's blue helmets stymied by faulty Chinese APCs Free

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