British forces sent to Mali as jihadist conflict rages

The British force, say senior officers, will seek to promote human rights and help with civic projects, writes Kim Sengupta

The first integration exercise between Royal Dragoons and Little Anglians (Ministry of Defence)

British troops have been sent to Mali to join an international force facing a violent jihadist insurgency that has drawn in al-Qaeda and Isis, against a backdrop of political turbulence following a military coup.  

The UK task force of 300 armour and infantry will focus on reconnaissance and intelligence gathering based in an area which has long been one of the centres of extremist strife and has recently came under attack.

The British soldiers will be part of the UN’s peacekeeping mission, Minusma. A separate French-led counter-terrorist force conducting Operation Barkhana has a UK contribution of Chinook helicopters and a hundred logistics personnel. The two missions have separate chains of command, but liaise on a number of security issues.  

The British troops from the Light Dragoons and the Royal Anglian Regiment will be carrying out long-range patrols, using armoured cars including Jackals, Foxhounds and Mastiffs. They will be based in Gao, in the northeast, with plans to expand to other areas. Members of the Army’s 77th Brigade, which specialises in information and cyber warfare, will be part of the deployment with the aim of countering jihadist communications and propaganda.  

The UN base at Gao, along with those in the cities of Kidal and Menaka, were hit by rocket fire earlier this week. It was the first time international forces several hundred miles apart had been targeted in a coordinated attack.  

The assaults came after French forces killed Bah ag Moussa – also known as Barmoussa Diarra, a senior jihadi commander and deputy to Iyad ag Ghali, the leader of the al-Qaeda affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, (JNIM) . The group has killed large numbers of soldiers and civilians in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso, illustrating the spread of jihadist violence across borders in the Sahel.  

A swathe of countries in the sub-Saharan region, from southern Algeria to northern Nigeria, Mauritania, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and South Sudan, experienced extremist activity.  

Gao was captured by the Islamist groups Ansar Dine and MNLA in 2012 before they took Timbuktu. It was bombed by French warplanes a year later after France intervened in the former colony with the Islamists threatening to overrun the capital, Bamako,  

The city was subsequently captured by French and Malian forces, but has experienced a number of Islamist attacks since, including a truck suicide bombing three years ago on a military camp killing 77 people and injuring 115 others.  

Islamists imposed brutal Salafist laws during their rule in Gao and other parts of the north and east with punishments including mutilations and executions. Women were particularly subjugated with sexual assaults and forced marriages.  

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mahmoud, an Ansar Dine commander, is currently on trial at the International Criminal Court, in the Hague accused of war crimes including torture and rape.  

The British force, say senior officers, will seek to promote human rights and help with civic projects drawing on the experience units which have carried out work to combat sexual violence in conflict zones such as South Sudan.  

The force is scheduled to be based in Mali for three years, with a change of personnel every six months as is the standard procedure with UK overseas operations. The British government offered to provide the mission for Minusma, and its role and rules of engagement are set by the UN.  

Senior officers hold that the Mali deployment is different in nature from Afghanistan or Iraq, and British forces will not be sucked into a long drawn out conflict.  

The troops will fly from RAF Brize Norton directly to Gao, while some of the equipment will be transported overland. They will operate from the newly constructed Camp Bagnold, named after Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold, the first commander of the Army’s Long Range Desert Group, which operated in north Africa during the Second World War.  

Minusma has a current strength of around 14,000 with an annual budget of $1.2bn. The Trump administration, which has cut its funding for UN peacekeeping, had been critical of aspects of the Mali mission. The incoming Biden presidency is said to be supportive of Minusma along with other multinational missions.  

The insurgency in Mali is taking place against a backdrop of instability. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was overthrown in a putsch in August with the former defence minister, Bah Ndaw, taking over the presidency, and Colonel Assimi Goita heading a transitional government. Mr Ndaw, a former helicopter pilot, was trained by the Russians: Col Goita had received training from the US military. A previous coup, in 2012, was led by Captain Amadou Sanogo, who was also trained by the Americans.  

Major General Nick Borton, the chief of staff for operations at Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) said the UK force said the deteriorating security situation in Mali, and the terrorist threat this poses, made it necessary for the deployment to take place. The focus of the troops, he said was to protect local communities against violence while upholding human rights.

Lieutenant Colonel Tom Robinson, Commanding Officer of the Light Dragoons, said: “We bring years of experience on operations, first class equipment and exceptional people. We’ve trained hard for the last year to make that we are ready for this challenging mission. We’re proud to be the first British soldiers to join in this team effort to help combat instability in the Sahel.”  

The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said: “As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, this deployment is a demonstration of our firm commitment to peacekeeping and the importance we place on improving security in the Sahel by protecting local communities … We are one of a small handful of nations able to provide this specialist capability in a challenging environment, which will help prevent the spread of conflict across the region.”  

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, added: “This new deployment of 300 British troops to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali is part of our ongoing work in the Sahel region to build stability, improve the humanitarian response and help protect innocent civilians from violence.”