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Poland provides 170 tons of equipment to the Malian army

(credit: Polish Army)
(credit: Polish Army)

(B2) Poland has donated 170 tons of equipment to the Malian army worth more than 11 million Zlotys (about 2,6 million euros), the Polish Ministry of Defense announced. This is the result of an agreement signed on July 31 in Paris, between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Mali.

Thus were delivered - according to our information - 100 AKM machine guns (manufactured by Kalashnikov, "molded" version of the AK47), rocket launchers, different types of ammunition (7.62 mm and 12.7 mm) and self-propelled grenades, from the stocks of the Polish Ammunition Agency.

The last part of the shipment reached Bamako last Wednesday (13 November). And the ownership transfer protocol was officially signed the next day in the city of Kati, by the commander of the Polish military contingent in the EUTM Mali mission, Lt. Col. Mieczyslaw Spychalski, and Col. Drabo Mustafa, director of the Department of Materials, Fuels and Transport of the Malian army.

The Poles are responsible for the logistical training of their Malian counterparts, " a weak point in the Malian army" assures Spychalski. « The work of the military of the Polish contingent is therefore very large. They teach things that are completely new to them.”

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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