It will be called an operation Takuba, in Tuareg language means "sword". The French ask Europeans for help to stem jihadist terrorism in the Sahel.
Apparently, President Macron, in the recent bilateral summit in Naples, asked the Italian government for support from our Special Forces (but there will also be contingents from Great Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Estonia and the Czech Republic), with the addition of rotary wing assets in the sub-Saharan regions.
But who are the jihadists against whom the French in the Sahel fight - with many losses?
They are the Tuareg, in the pay of Gaddafi, veterans from the Libyan civil war of 2011!
Defeated by the western air intervention, they decided to return home, to Niger and Mali, waiting for someone to hire them for a new war.
That someone was al-Qaida.
In 2012, al-Qaeda militias, made up of Tuareg mercenaries from Gaddafi, descended southward with pick-ups loaded with machine guns, rocket launchers, and recoil-free cannons. But they did not wave the Prophet's banner but that of Ansar Dine, Tuareg jihadist group.
Neither the French, who had posts on the Libyan border, nor American intelligence were able to understand the storm that was looming on the horizon.
The whole of Mali was set on fire, while the Malian army dissolved like snow in the sun, abandoning means and armaments readily recovered by the Tuareg.
The faults of Paris are enormous. The French have bestowed mock independence, creating artificial borders, mixing enemy ethnicities with each other. Perhaps with the hope that the eternal internal conflicts favored French interests in the region.
Washington pulled out of the Sahel, judging it (erroneously) devoid of strategic interest and letting the French take care of it (if anything the United States will be behind the scenes, perhaps providing information, logistical support and probably orders): that they are the eat snails to go to the front line, it is their responsibility, they must protect their uranium and at the same time resurrect it Grandeur Fran ςaise.
The operation was therefore launched in January 2013 Serval; supported by two UN resolutions.
Hollande sends the Legionnaires of the 1st REI, the 2nd REP, the Navy Riflemen hunting for Tuareg in the caves. Transalpine propaganda does the rest: a struggle between Good (France) and Evil (jihadists). The reality, as often happens, is more complex ...
In the Sahel regions, an alliance was formed between traffickers who embraced the faith of the Prophet and remnants of transalpine neocolonialism.
Paris already has its plans: political war. Therefore brutal methods, alternating with the usual theory of conquer hearts and minds.
However, despite the massive commitment of Paris, the situation cannot stabilize, the Tuareg jihad continues. It even seems to branch out, making alliances with Boko Haram.
Our soldiers will have to deal with expert fighters, who know the rules of war in the desert well, including its pitfalls. A kind of liquid war, which is modeled on the ground, made up of small well-equipped groups that strike and vanish immediately, to cancel the reaction.
It will be necessary to set up a Task Force of operators of our Special Forces (as in Afghanistan and Iraq), with support from the 3rd REOS Aldebaran, but also attack vectors such as the AH-129D Mongoose.
Political concerns remain many.
Why participate in an operation designed by the French for their purposes?
What is our advantage?
All questions that we hope our Executive has asked himself.
Photo: Online Defense / web / Ministère des Armées
