Danes deploy to Mali: Minusma first, then Barkhane
(B2) Denmark confirmed on Tuesday (13 November) the dispatch of a C130J Hercules transport plane to Mali as part of the peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA). This is the first of three deployments planned in the coming months. Copenhagen will also provide helicopters to Operation Barkhane and an intelligence unit for MINUSMA
Based in Bamako
65 soldiers — pilots, mechanics, support staff, interpreters — accompany the plane as well as a medical unit (doctors and nurses) and a security unit responsible for guarding the international camp, the plane and the maintenance facilities, such as secure the device while on the move. They should be operational from mid-November. They will be based at Bamako International Airport, in the international camp run by Norway. This for six months.
A multi-role aspect
The Danish pilots will provide the internal flights in Mali necessary for MINUSMA, but they will also be able to " exceptionally perform transport duties on behalf of MINUSMA in other West and North African countries “says the Ministry of Defense. The aircraft will have a multirole aspect: transport of troops, equipment, repatriation of the sick and wounded. It is equipped to be able to drop equipment in flight with a parachute, such as a search and rescue aid device and the recovery of aerial images.
Guaranteed rotation with three other countries
This contribution from Copenhagen is part of a rotation program concluded with Belgium, Norway and Portugal aimed at permanently providing a C-130 transport aircraft to MINUSMA. The Danes have already been present in MINUSMA in 2014 and 2017.
Two other contributions
At the end of 2019, the armed forces will send two transport helicopters and around 70 people to Mali to support Operation Barkhane. They will complement and then take over from the British helicopters.
At the beginning of 2020, a dozen soldiers will also join MINUSMA, to form with the Germans a German intelligence unit which will be based at the large Gao camp of the United Nations force. Objective: to collect and analyze information on the situation in Mali.
« We want to support stability and security in the whole region so that it is not under the control of extremists and traffickers said Defense Minister Trine Bramsen.
(NGV)
