Rebirth of England.

Chapter 856 Mission Group

By the end of June, the "Defenders of the Faith" had used the civil war to completely suppress the Azardian National Liberation Movement and implemented strict Islamic law in northern Mali.

Then, after a short rest, the "Defenders of the Faith" set out from their occupied areas to the south, breaking the standoff, capturing the important towns of Kona and Jabali in central Mali, and approaching the capital Bamako.

You know, it takes almost two days to drive from Kona to Bamako, so for a while, everyone in Bamako was worried.

This also shows that if external forces do not get involved, the Mali civil war will change from a simple separatist war to a humanitarian crisis.

In such a dangerous situation, Traoré, the president of Mali's transitional government (military government), wrote to the UN and the African Union for help.

As early as June 6 this year, Jean Ping, Chairman of the AU Commission, said that the AU had made a request to the UN, hoping that the Security Council would pass a resolution on the Mali issue in the near future, authorizing the establishment of a multinational stabilization force to intervene militarily in Mali if negotiations failed to resolve the issue.

Prior to this, officials from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) standby force met with representatives of the African Union, the United States and France in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire to discuss details of the future ECOWAS force to Mali.

Mali is a French-speaking country. It was once a French colony and is now a member of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States. Therefore, France is also very concerned about the situation in Mali.

After Hollande came to power, he met with the rotating chairman of the AU, the President of Benin and the President of Niger at the Elysee Palace, and made it clear that the initiative to resolve the Mali issue lies in the hands of Mali, its neighboring countries and ECOWAS, but if the AU and ECOWAS make a request to the Security Council under the UN framework, France will provide full support.

Although all parties have stressed the importance of resolving the crisis through peaceful dialogue, military intervention has become an alternative, or even an inevitable, option to prevent the emergence of a "West African Afghanistan."

However, attention is attention, and Hollande has never been behind in verbal support, but when it comes to actual action, he really didn't want to get involved at the beginning.

On the one hand, although Mali's anti-government armed forces are poorly equipped, they have relatively stable territory, and no matter what, they have a certain combat effectiveness in the long-term confrontation with the government forces. Their total strength is about 10,000 people.

Facing such an enemy, simply dropping a few bombs from fighter jets will definitely not solve the problem.

It is definitely necessary to send ground troops to clear out and encircle each city one by one in order to completely eliminate the enemy.

Because military spending had been decreasing year after year, the French army at that time did not have sufficient transportation capacity to airlift at least a brigade of personnel and equipment from its homeland to the battlefield in Mali, thousands of miles away.

This lack of delivery capability completely limited the French army's desire to participate.

On the other hand, before this, the US military was caught in a strategic dilemma in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is conceivable that if France intervenes in the Mali civil war, it will most likely end up in the same way.

Therefore, the most reliable way for France at present is to let the UN take the lead in organizing a multinational peacekeeping force, or for the African Union to obtain authorization from the UN, organize troops, and intervene in the Mali civil war under the banner of peacekeeping. After the "Defenders of the Faith" organization captured the important town of Kona in the south of Mali, Niger President Youssouf publicly stated:

"In northern Mali, radical elements from Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places are providing training for terrorists. Terrorism not only threatens the security of the entire region, but also endangers the peace of the world."

In addition, countries such as Guinea and Senegal also support sending troops to Mali when necessary to ensure a smooth transition of power and assist the Malian government forces in combating rebels and Islamic extremist groups in the north.

Niger's Minister of State Bazoum said during a discussion with the new Defense Minister of Kolo, Errol 1 Bruette, who once served as the commander of the Kolo Corps:
"We firmly believe that military strikes against terrorists are the only option."

In early July, Burkina Faso President Compaore, who was attending the 7th African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, announced that the AU had decided to provide US$20 million in funding to the African-led International Mission in Mali.

Kolo President Thomas Kaboré also attended this AU summit.

During the meeting, the AU Chairman announced that he had obtained authorization from the UN to organize a peacekeeping mission to support Mali to help the Malian government stop separatist forces and fight against terrorist attacks on civilians.

At present, more than a dozen African countries have expressed their willingness to participate in the International Support Mission in Mali. Among them, Burkina Faso will send 650 soldiers and Kolo will send 500 soldiers... The number of this multinational force may reach 5000 to 6000.

Kolo itself has a tradition of supporting the AU and actively participating in peacekeeping operations in African countries. Therefore, after the civil war in Mali, Kolo President Thomas Kaboré also actively responded to the call of the AU - and Mali and Kolo are only separated by Burkina Faso.

The economic and political ties between Burkina Faso and Kolo have become increasingly close, but Burkina Faso's northern border is also facing infiltration and threats from the Malian "Defenders of the Faith" extremist group.

Therefore, the participation of Burkina Faso, Niger and Kolo in the AU peacekeeping operation this time is also partly based on their own interests.

According to AU officials, $7.6 million is needed to resolve the Mali crisis, of which $4.6 million will be used for the operations of the International Mission in Mali and $3 million will be used to rebuild the Malian army.

In addition to sending a 500-strong peacekeeping force, Kolo also pledged to donate $2500 million to the AU peacekeeping operation, and to provide training and weapons and equipment worth $1000 million to the Malian government forces - all of which will be manufactured at Kolo's local military production base.

On July 7, after the establishment of the AU peacekeeping mission in Mali, a total of 16 peacekeeping troops (three battalions) from Kolo, Burkina Faso and Niger entered Mali from the border between northwestern Burkina Faso and Mali. In accordance with the AU's allocation, they established a safe zone in the northwest of Bamali, the capital of Mali, and began to accommodate Malian civilians who fled there to avoid attacks by various armed factions in Mali.

In order to avoid causing additional trouble, the peacekeeping force sent to Mali by the Kolo Corps this time, except for a 15-member technical team, is composed entirely of black people from Kolo, and can be said to be composed of the most elite members of the Kolo Corps.

Just from the equipment of the personnel, one can clearly see the difference between Kolo and the other two countries.

Not only are the weapons and individual equipment more complete and advanced, but this battalion of peacekeeping forces of the Kolo Corps is also equipped with two armed helicopters and one transport helicopter, as well as advanced armed vehicles such as armored vehicles and multi-purpose combat vehicles.

In addition, their technical team also brought drones!
(End of this chapter)