Germany to send 550 More Troops to Mali, Iraq Missions

[Aepsilons]

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet decided Wednesday to deploy an additional 550 troops to missions against jihadist fighters in Mali and Iraq.

They will be deployed in Mali, to relieve French forces in their fight against jihadists, and in northern Iraq, to train Kurdish troops also battling IS.

The boost to the two missions must be approved by parliament, which is seen likely in coming weeks given the strong majority of Merkel's coalition government.

Some 500 of the additional troops will be sent to the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, to monitor a peace deal between the government and northern rebels in the west African country.

The Bundeswehr's previous mandate there was for 150 soldiers, but only about 10 were deployed. The new total deployment could therefore be up to 650 troops, cabinet decided.

This comes on top of some 200 German soldiers who are serving as part of a European training mission of Malian soldiers in the country's more stable south.

In northern Iraq, Germany will boost from 50 to 150 troops its mission to provide weapons training to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

In November, after the Islamic State group attacks in Paris, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen had vowed to support France.

"We will and must stand firmly by France's side and do everything we can to help in this situation," von der Leyen said at the time.

Northern Mali fell under the control of al-Qaida-linked groups in 2012.

The Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless and prone to attacks.


Germany to send 550 More Troops to Mali, Iraq Missions



@Henry ME 95 @Bundeswehr @Deino

 

[Aepsilons]

@Penguin , look at our German boys getting ready to deliver some action.

Great initiative from Northern Europe! When will the Dutch do the same, sir?

 

[Vergennes]

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet decided Wednesday to deploy an additional 550 troops to missions against jihadist fighters in Mali and Iraq.

They will be deployed in Mali, to relieve French forces in their fight against jihadists, and in northern Iraq, to train Kurdish troops also battling IS.

The boost to the two missions must be approved by parliament, which is seen likely in coming weeks given the strong majority of Merkel's coalition government.

Some 500 of the additional troops will be sent to the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, to monitor a peace deal between the government and northern rebels in the west African country.

The Bundeswehr's previous mandate there was for 150 soldiers, but only about 10 were deployed. The new total deployment could therefore be up to 650 troops, cabinet decided.

This comes on top of some 200 German soldiers who are serving as part of a European training mission of Malian soldiers in the country's more stable south.

In northern Iraq, Germany will boost from 50 to 150 troops its mission to provide weapons training to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

In November, after the Islamic State group attacks in Paris, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen had vowed to support France.

"We will and must stand firmly by France's side and do everything we can to help in this situation," von der Leyen said at the time.

Northern Mali fell under the control of al-Qaida-linked groups in 2012.

The Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless and prone to attacks.


Germany to send 550 More Troops to Mali, Iraq Missions



@Henry ME 95 @Bundeswehr @Deino

Not that i don't welcome this "move",but these soldiers will not be deployed to relieve our forces that are actually fighting the armed terrorists groups,but will ;

The German army's main task will be to investigate and relay an accurate picture of the situation, based on patrols and the use of small drones. Mission command says the goal is to monitor the peace agreement made between the government of Mali and rebel groups last July.

The troops will not be going on the offensive to engage the rebels; that role is being carried out by France.

German cabinet approves more troops for Mali | Germany | DW.COM | 06.01.2016

Here's the problem.

@Penguin , look at our German boys getting ready to deliver some action.

Great initiative from Northern Europe! When will the Dutch do the same, sir?

Since April 2014, the Dutch special forces are operating in Mali and also deployed some Chinooks and Apaches.

@Penguin

@Taygibay

 

[Taygibay]

The Dutch have been doing an outstanding job too. They do CSAR and I've read reports
from their guys and others that show they were active in their role and proficient at it.

I would like to take some blame off the German soldiers themselves though. Phrases like
the one above : The troops will not be going on the offensive to engage the rebels; that role is being carried out by France. ...
are mostly meant for internal propaganda, i.e. reassuring the Germans that no real military
action and thus no real danger will be met by their troops.
If they do a useful job of securing intel to maintain the internal deal with the Tuaregs, why not!

That's episodes 6 & 4 out of 9 or 10 total, a bit TV oriented but still telling,
and good day Vauban, Nihonjin, Penguin and all, Tay.

 

[Penguin]

Not that i don't welcome this "move",but these soldiers will not be deployed to relieve our forces that are actually fighting the armed terrorists groups,but will ;

They may not actively go after armed groups, but is says nowhere they will no fight if and when attacked or when groups present themselves. Those Germans heading to Mali for the mission will be deployed to the north eastern city of Gao, where Dutch soldiers on the mission are stationed.

Hans-Peter Bartels, Germany's parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, says the deployment is "currently the most dangerous UN mission," describing it as just as dangerous as the combat mission in Afghanistan.

But you must consider that the UN soldiers are in Mali on a peacekeeping mission: they do not have a mandate to take active steps against the Islamists.

MINUSMA Mandate - United Nations Multidimensional
Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali
MINUSMA Facts and Figures - United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)

France and some African states intervened and helped the Malian Army to re-take most of Northern Mali. French troops operating under bilateral agreement between French and Mali governments (rather than UN auspices) have no such restrictions.

The German government is planning a substantial expansion of its operation in northern Mali at the request
of the Netherlands, which has peacekeeping troops deployed under a UN mandate around the city of Gao
since April 2014. According to Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen, German service personnel are to
replace their Dutch comrades from spring 2016 on, mainly in terms of reconnaissance in this expansive region.

With about 500 troops and police officers as well as Apache attack helicopters and Chinook cargo helicopters, the Netherlands provides the major part of reconnaissance and support services for the mission. Germany, on the other hand, which provided approximately 100 troops to airlift capabilities of the UN mission until June 2014, currently only participates with a total of ten troops and eight police officers;

According to Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen, there is an urgent need in northern Mali for opera-tional forces that are capable of gathering information about movements and activities of terrorist groups, militias, and criminals as well as about government troops and the local population. In her opinion, the Bundeswehr has the necessary reconnaissance capabilities to replace the Dutch forces. More specifically, this concerns the reconnaissance forces of the army, above all armoured patrols, camera-equipped “Luna” UAVs for close-range air reconnaissance, as well as special forces for covert reconnaissance. According to a newspaper report, the employment of the high-performance “Heron 1” UAV has been rejected by the Min-istry of Defence.1 Should the deployment area be expanded, this may be reconsidered.
Yet, reconnaissance forces alone will not be enough. Given the remote location of deployment, the threat situation, which is predominantly rated as “considerable or high”, and military-tactical considerations, addi-tional support and security components will be necessary. In the currently favoured decentralised organisa-tion of the operation from “Camp Castor”, close to Gao, a German contingent would necessarily have to comprise command and liaison elements, logistics, medical personnel, as well as infantry for self-protection. In this context, the German rule that requires wounded personnel to be transported to an ap-propriate medical facility within an hour can be seen as particularly critical. Due to the enormous distances in northern Mali, this would be feasible only by using helicopters. The constant threat posed by improvised explosive devices (IED) placed by Islamist groups such as Ansar Dine and repeated attacks on UN troops in the Gao region will also require the availability of counter-IED capabilities and make mobile and rapidly deployable robust troops indispensable.
If all those capabilities were required, a German contingent would easily consist of 700 troops or more. In such a configuration, it would also be capable of conducting the operation in a largely autonomous and robust manner – in other words, it would be capable of combat.
As a result, two important consequences arise for German policy. Firstly, to ensure mission accomplishment and an appropriate protection of the troops, an operation of the Bundeswehr in northern Mali would re-quire comprehensive capabilities and a robust mandate. Secondly, almost all reasonable configurations of the contingent would exceed the mandate ceiling of 150 troops. As a consequence, parliamentary participa-tion will be inevitable in order to extend the mandate.

https://www.baks.bund.de/sites/baks010/files/working_paper_security_policy_8_2015.pdf

 

[Taygibay]

French troops operating under bilateral agreement between French and Mali governments (rather than UN auspices) have no such restrictions.

Right on! True that, rave on and all these sort of things!
The same applies to the Barkhane Op. except that half of the job is support to joint
operations with or between participating nations and the other half mainly French.
Only the latter is free of restrictions, of course!

But honestly, the dichotomy from combat to support nations in Europe remains open
and evident. And it will have to be tackled en route to an EU defense!

Good evening guys, Tay.

 

[Penguin]

Right on! True that, rave on and all these sort of things!
The same applies to the Barkhane Op. except that half of the job is support to joint
operations with or between participating nations and the other half mainly French.
Only the latter is free of restrictions, of course!

But honestly, the dichotomy from combat to support nations in Europe remains open
and evident. And it will have to be tackled en route to an EU defense!

Good evening guys, Tay.

But you are ignoring the historical French ties here. And role specialisation is to some extent inevitable because small nations cannot afford large militaries or all capabilities that larger countries have. Still it would help if all NATO members actually committed to the 2% GDP defence budget they signed up for (including Netherlands)

 

[Henry ME 95]

Excellent news.
Normally I'm somewhat weary of foreign deployment but our soldiers could use some more practice.
It will also be a boon to French forces and hopefully get Mali a tad bit more stable.

 

[Penguin]

Excellent news.
Normally I'm somewhat weary of foreign deployment but our soldiers could use some more practice.
It will also be a boon to French forces and hopefully get Mali a tad bit more stable.

Anything on what kind of units are going?

 

[Taygibay]

No, no, Penguin, I'm forgetting neither. My view only considers an eventual European Defence.
If we specialize by geographic influence as in French interests however, Spain will have to raise
its military a lot and once that is done, along with France and the UK will suffice to represent the
whole globe through historic ( colonization ) ties. What will the rest do?
If we specialize by who does what, all of Europe will be under a triumvirate : Deutschland for its
economic clout and France and UK for military might and diplomacy split amongst the trio. What
could Latvia or Liechtenstein do? Etc.
Plus, for an autonomous power, i.e. as a UNSC P5 not as part of the EU or NATO, who's to say
where one will have to intervene tomorrow? It may be far from our pré carré? Global world, etc?

There are many possible avenues to fix the problems but we lack the vehicle ( political will ) to ride 'em.
I'd be in favour of multi_national brigades personally. Africa is almost further along this integration
than we are, with recent AU moves and ops, for Pete's sake!
Why do you think France handles mil hard work but shuns EU_UN cooperations à la Blue Helmets?
Because these just don't work all that well. Check how many peeps from either are now in Mali and
yet can't stabilize our 2013 work while we take on a crescent ( barchan )/ net below the Sahara that
almost extends across the width of the continent.

I'd rather we get dissed for doing the job instead of being lauded for doing half of it, follow my gaze!
Proud of it too! That's all I meant.

Read you later, Tay.

 

[Henry ME 95]

Anything on what kind of units are going?

I have no idea.
A better person to ask would be @Bundeswehr
He follows Mali closer than I do

 

[Jäger]

along with the new 650 soldiers going to Mali we have 330 from a first approval meaning after the 650 troops arrive we will have 980 troops in Mali , 3 C-160 Transport planes and 1 A310 MRTT.

 

[Taygibay]

Geez, ISR & transport! Thanks for that update Bundeswehr!
That's quite a step up from the GHQ small bunch initially sent.

As Henry ME said, it will be good for the soldiers whom after all
are not the problem here but rather the "victims" of political choices.

Guten Tag all, Tay.

 

[mike2000 is back]

@Penguin , look at our German boys getting ready to deliver some action.

Great initiative from Northern Europe! When will the Dutch do the same, sir?

LOL This is a welcome development. We have been urging Germany to take a more active role in Europe's foreign operations for decades now invane. It's about time.

UK urges Germany to increase military strength | The Times
NATO's Stoltenberg urges Germany to invest more in defence| Reuters

 

[Aepsilons]

LOL This is a welcome development. We have been urging Germany to take a more active role in Europe's foreign operations for decades now invane. It's about time.

UK urges Germany to increase military strength | The Times
NATO's Stoltenberg urges Germany to invest more in defence| Reuters

Small steps, my friend, small steps. I see the German modus operandi...