The scenario was expected, here it is confirmed: Paris announced on Friday the end of Task Force Takuba in Mali, a conglomeration of European special forces, collateral victims of tensions with the colonels in power in Bamako.
Mounted with great difficulty by former Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly to share with Europeans the burden of fighting jihadists in the Sahel, Takuba succumbed to two coups in Mali, in August 2020 and May 2021 the brutal deterioration of Franco-Malian relations, and then this year’s departure of the French anti-jihadi force Barkhane.
“The reorganization of the French military system in the Sahel (…) led to the end of (…) Takuba’s operations in Mali from June 30,” said General Pascal Ianni, spokesman for the French staff, during a press briefing.
Barkhane and Takuba testify to what “Europeans can achieve together in complex security environments,” he continued, assuring that “the lessons” from this operational experience would endure.
Takuba, a symbol of European defense dear to French President Emmanuel Macron, eventually brought together a dozen European countries and up to 800-900 elite soldiers.
They were responsible for helping the Malian armed forces gain autonomy and allowing them to re-establish themselves in areas deserted by the state in the face of jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS) group .
“political game»
Often skeptical at first after having to obtain the consent of their respective parliaments, nine European countries finally accepted the French proposal (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden).
In early April 2021, Takuba was declared “full operational”. It only lasted a little over a year.
“In addition to the joint assessment of the situation, joint procedures and a brotherhood of arms were forged,” welcomed the French staff.
But Takuba will not have withstood the tensions with Bamako. In January, the junta asked Denmark to withdraw its troops, which had just arrived but were stationed “without its consent”. Copenhagen had denounced “a dirty political game”.
In breaking with Paris, the Bamako junta also broke with its allies in favor of the private Russian mercenary company Wagner, accused of multiple human rights abuses and other human trafficking in the Middle East and Africa.
The sign of a major geopolitical reorientation in Mali, exacerbating French devaluation in the region and calling into question the future of European engagement in the anti-jihadist struggle in the Sahel.
reestablishment
For example, the Swedish force had already decided not to expand their special forces beyond their original June mandate. Stockholm is also unlikely to move troops out of Mali, even if exchanges with France officially resume.
And if Stockholm keeps 200 men in Minusma, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, it will leave a year ahead of schedule, in the first half of 2023. And today it is the entire international system in the swaying region.
The French army will have left Mali at the end of August after nine years of service. And Minusma, which has been extended by a year, will be deprived of air support. “The ongoing military restructuring in the region could jeopardize past counter-terrorism efforts,” UN experts said in a document seen by AFP.
“Our transformation to a partnership model was embodied in Mali by Takuba. But the operation was hit in full swing,” acknowledged AFP General Hervé Pierre, who oversees partnerships between French and West African armies from Niamey.
But “the spirit of Takuba will live on in an even more balanced relationship in the fighting partnership with Nigeria,” he assured.
In May, Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum called on the French and Europeans to “take more risks and not let the losses in the Sahel come to haunt them”.
He called for their forces to be deployed “with substantial air capacity, effective rules of engagement, casualties, financial resources, with many more helicopters and bombs”.