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Opération “Barkhane”

Rapace

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« Il leur faut de l’humain »
Le capitaine Marc, de la 2e compagnie, a vécu cet événement. Il est une légende parmi les « barons » du régiment, qu’il quitte, lui aussi, pour d’autres fonctions, après huit ans. Le chant allemand de l’unité, le Westerwald, composé en 1932, vient de résonner. « Il n’y a nulle part pareille relation humaine », répète le capitaine, ému de devoir tourner le dos à ses pairs. En guise de cadeau, les légionnaires ont fabriqué pour lui un spectaculaire autel de bois orné de quatre saint Michel d’or pour abriter son képi blanc d’ancien soldat. « Le 2e REI, ce n’est pas un job. C’est une vie. »

a3792be_69525430-2REI-ELIAS-17.jpg

Le médecin-chef Xavier, de retour d'opération du Mali, écoute un discours du chef de corps, avant de pouvoir déjeuner, à Nîmes, le 31 juillet. EDOUARD ELIAS POUR « LE MONDE »

Sur le chemin du retour, les légionnaires ont passé deux jours isolés dans les Alpes, pour subir les tests du coronavirus. Depuis le Mali, le major Joselito n’a pas cru à cette pandémie jusqu’à ce que sa femme lui envoie une vidéo des rues vides de Nîmes. « Le Covid, ce n’est pas notre monde », lâche le sergent anglais Greg en souriant. Il le sait maintenant, à la Légion, « on est ensemble. On fait tout ensemble. On vit ensemble ». Au « 2e étranger », on se serre dans les salles communes étouffantes, Covid ou pas.

« Ils viennent de leur guerre, pour eux ce n’est rien, et il faut le comprendre », estime le major José, 59 ans, qui, à l’arrière, s’est occupé des familles. Lui a laissé sa femme partir seule au Portugal pour l’été. D’autres légionnaires ne pourront rejoindre les leurs sans risquer de rester bloqués dans leur pays, qui au Népal, qui au Brésil. « Il leur faut de l’humain », poursuit le major José de sa voix forte, et très grave. « Cette histoire de distanciation sociale, on a du mal. Nous sommes incompatibles avec ça. Il faut la fraternité, pour réamalgamer ces hommes qui ont été séparés pendant cinq mois. »

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Un traditionnel déjeuner est organisé en l'honneur de la passation de commandement de la première compagnie, les Légionnaires ont posé leur képi pour la pause. Nîmes, le 31 juillet EDOUARD ELIAS POUR "LE MONDE"

Le capitaine Marc a franchi la grande grille d’entrée avec ses médailles et son képi. Sa musette aussi, débordant comme le veut la tradition de légumes – céleri, poireaux, poivrons. « On dit du 2e REI qu’il est un rouleau compresseur, une usine de combat, une machine de guerre. Mais, si c’était une machine, je ne serais pas si triste aujourd’hui », vient-il de lancer en guise d’adieu.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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(...) All in French, but I'll try to post an English translation when I have time.
I haven't had time to check it - feel free to do so- But in MS Word '19 you have under the 'review' section a translator.

“If we have five minutes, you eat; ten, we sleep”: the legionnaires of “Barkhane” recount their hellish mission in Mali

Since February, soldiers of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment were tracking the jihadists of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara organisation. Story of an exceptional mandate.

It's a time of reunion after five months of war. The one of hugs and cold beer, ceremonies, too. The moment of “Shut up your mouths in there” shouted among the assembled officers, when silence is ordered to greet the mutated. The one also of the always awaited "Hands on!", which delivers the buffets to appetites while the cicadas sing in the midday heat.

The 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (REI) returns from Mali. On July 29, the last company crossed the gates of the Chabrières barracks of Nîmes. In the shade of the plane trees of the place of arms, the returnees disembark, white kepi on the head, surgical mask on the mouth. They grasp their package in silence under the veiled eye of their leader. They were waiting for them. "Now we must first find our first family, who is in the regiment. Reintegrate our own house, which is here,"greets Major Joselito, whose hair is greying after thirty-one years of the Foreign Legion.

In Mali, it was five uninterrupted months of fire, sand and sleepless nights. Order had been passed in January to clear the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). In Operation Barkhane, it was the turn of the Legionnaires. The "Legion mandate", they rejoice today. For the foreign regiments were sent en masse: paratroopers from Calvi, riders from Carpiagne, sappers from Laudun. The Nîmes infantrymen arrived in the Sahel in early February with their armoured infantry fighting vehicles. The maneuver? If you listen to the chief of operations, Lieutenant-Colonel Pierre, it comes with a clear line. "Deploy as many people as possible on the ground in a sustainable way."

"Looking for the enemy where it evolves"
The legionnaires wanted it, this hunt for the jihadists Each of these combat professionals demanded their share of the balance sheet. They got it. Harassment, searches and sweeps, landed infantry combat, neutralizations at every opportunity. It was an exceptional mandate. It had been a long time since almost the entire regiment had left in this way, with 900 men: the "Dragon" group fulfilled its mission. "Pure happiness, it is there, to do the job for which one is paid, to look for the enemy where it evolves, to know everything about its paths, to the market where it supplies", notes Major Joselito. They can put it this way because, they all say, "everyone is home." Neither killed nor seriously injured. A third of these soldiers, 26 years on average, experienced their first external operation under the French flag in 2020. The men of the fourth company, returning from Mali, check that no parts of the armament are missing, in Nimes, on 31 July. EDOUARD ELIAS FOR "THE WORLD"

The "2nd foreigner" launched its companies in Gourma, a region of Mali located under the river, between Timbuktu and Gao. It is in this border area of Niger and Burkina that the EIGS is rampant. Officers refer to it as a "hunting area." A deserted dish of shady shrubs, sneaky tracks whose sinkings are waiting to break up vehicles, soils where every plant carries thorns. When the Legionnaires took their seats there, the Malian army was hit hard by the jihadist guerrillas. "We had to stop the deterioration of the situation and generate a balance sheet," said Colonel Arnaud Guerry, who will take command of the regiment within a few days. From the bottom line: prevent, capture, kill EIGS fighters, so. "The combat actions have systematically turned to our advantage."

"No half-measures"
Officers talk about "a very fast pace." Suffice to say hell. The military on the ground carried out uninterrupted operations, lasting four to six weeks, away from the bases of the sector, the cities of Gao and Gossi. They acted day and night, continuously, up to six nights a week, wishing to appear in the early morning where their opponents no longer expected them. "In Mali, no half-measures,"says Lieutenant Walter, a little blond with a sunburnt face who commanded the regiment's commando section. "The nights are either so dark that you can't see it even with our night visions, or as clear as the day." Colonel Arnaud Guerry, the regiment's corps chief, poses in front of the memorial in Nimes on 31 July. EDOUARD ELIAS FOR "THE WORLD"

May was the most physically demanding month, when temperatures climbed to 47 °C. A former soldier of Her Majesty, Corporal Greg, 30, tattooed like a rebel, appears straight out of a Liverpool rock band. He raises his hands with a fatalistic gesture: "The day... At night... The job... that is not the problem. The annoying thing is the heat! I'm English! Nothing to spoil the fun. “It was my first deployment. It was a good adventure.”

In the narratives, the men's step, the extension of the armoured vehicles display precise gauges. "Raids of 140 km at the bottom of the train during the day." "Motorized infiltrations for 50 km at night, the end of the road being on foot for an additional 15 km." When did we live? "You have to enjoy every moment,"Walter learned. "If you have five minutes, you eat, if you have ten, you sleep." But when the troop is disciplined and the environment attentive to its men, mutual aid does the rest, says the young lieutenant. We're moving forward. Always. The logistics company never stopped turning between the isolated posts of the Legionnaires, from the bases of Gao and Gossi. Three days of travel for trucks stuffed to the mouth of water and equipment, one day on site, three days back, one day of recharging. Go Forwards..
 

Rapace

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I haven't had time to check it - feel free to do so- But in MS Word '19 you have under the 'review' section a translator.
Thanks Joseph. Yes, doing a “first pass” with an automatic translator and then fine tuning the result is the best way to do that. I had to split the “Le Monde” article in 3 parts as it didn't fit into just one post (length limited to 10,000 characters).
 

Le petit caporal

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Some buddy beat me to it. Not that much info in the Nîmes local rag, the Midi Libre, yet.
The C.D.U. of the 4th company has a brand new 4 wheel, Ford pick up as his staff car (I see it drive past almost every day, except recently, because of leave, no doubt).
The COVID thing isn't finished... Toulouse, impose a permanent wearing of the face mask in the city center and lots of other communes are following example.
 

Rapace

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(...)The C.D.U. of the 4th company has a brand new 4 wheel, Ford pick up as his staff car (...)
That’s the new Véhicule Léger Tactique Polyvalent Non Protégé (Light Multirole Tactical Non-protected Vehicle) that replaced the old P4. Based on the Ford Everest SUV.
 

Le petit caporal

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Both should be mentioned and with a picture of the said vehicules in my thread on army equipment...or what ever you's baptized it
Just saying!
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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this from Ossie O. cheers Mate



1 min readMiscellaneous

Niger: six French tourists killed by armed men

Eight people, including six French tourists, were killed in Niger on Sunday August 9 by armed men, Nigerien authorities said.

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PUBLISHED ON 09/08/2020 AT 16:56 UPDATED ON 08/09/2020 AT 20:28

Eight people including six French and two Nigeriens were killed Sunday, August 9 by armed men who came on motorcycles in the Kouré area in Niger which is home to the last herds of West African giraffes, we learned from official source.

"There are eight dead: two Nigeriens including a (tourist) guide and a driver, the other six are French," Tillabéri governor Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella told AFP. "We are managing the situation, we will give more information later," said the governor, who did not give details of the circumstances of the attack, nor of the identity of the attackers. The attack allegedly took place around "11:30 (10:30 GMT) 6 km east of the town of Kouré", which is an hour's drive from Niamey, on the national number 1, specifies AFP, a source close to environmental services.

" Most of the victims were shot dead and a woman who managed to escape was caught and slaughtered . On the spot, we found a magazine emptied of its cartridges", notes this source, who adds: "We do not do not know the identity of the attackers, but they came on motorcycles through the bush and waited for the tourists to arrive. The vehicle borrowed by the tourists belongs to the NGO Acted ".

On the site of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs , the area where the six tourists were, with the driver and the tourist guide, is classified orange, that is to say , "areas not recommended except for imperative reasons" . For the moment, the Quai d'Orsay does not confirm the information and indicates that it is carrying out checks.

The Élysée confirms
that the French were killed in Niger on August 9, without giving the number of victims. Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with his Nigerian counterpart, Mahamadou Issoufou.

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The map of Niger on the website of the French Ministry of Foreign AffairsCredit: Screenshot of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
 

Le petit caporal

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Had read this earlier but thought, why the fk I should post stupity...
Go to Sahel for work, ok, but at your risk
Go to the Sahel area as a tourist...let the chacals eat their rations
Have no sympathy
 

Pink Floyd

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If it was too dangerous to continue the Paris to Dakar rally, what makes these tourists think it won’t happen to them. Makes one wonder where these people get their advice and information from to end up going into a war zone to go sightseeing. Sadly, it won’t be the last misadventure in the Sahel with foreign civilians getting slaughtered.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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It was actually Burkina Faso, but you're correct it is no place for tourists. I get a report from Garda World on Nigeria practically everyday on people being killed or taken hostages or shootouts with other gangs, or against the police.

1597052896570.png

Most of it is of course irrelevant unless you are looking for work in the region. I just got another today concerning an event which took place in BF yesterday. Some may ask why I have gone so far as to print out my screen? Is it to show off my cool powers of using a curseur ?
Well yes,
And no. I'm traumatised by the Night Jumper, AKA Loustic. I couldn't bare people thinking oh he's just full of sh$t, yeah like he's had a 171, alerts since September.

The report ▶ on BF
 

Pink Floyd

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If it was too dangerous to continue the Paris to Dakar rally, what makes these tourists think it won’t happen to them. Makes one wonder where these people get their advice and information from to end up going into a war zone to go sightseeing. Sadly, it won’t be the last misadventure in the Sahel with foreign civilians getting slaughtered.
The bodies were found laying near this burnt out vehicle. One woman was found a short distance away with her throat cut. The killers arrived, and fled, by motorcycles.
 

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mark wake

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I haven't had time to check it - feel free to do so- But in MS Word '19 you have under the 'review' section a translator.

“If we have five minutes, you eat; ten, we sleep”: the legionnaires of “Barkhane” recount their hellish mission in Mali

Since February, soldiers of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment were tracking the jihadists of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara organisation. Story of an exceptional mandate.

It's a time of reunion after five months of war. The one of hugs and cold beer, ceremonies, too. The moment of “Shut up your mouths in there” shouted among the assembled officers, when silence is ordered to greet the mutated. The one also of the always awaited "Hands on!", which delivers the buffets to appetites while the cicadas sing in the midday heat.

The 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (REI) returns from Mali. On July 29, the last company crossed the gates of the Chabrières barracks of Nîmes. In the shade of the plane trees of the place of arms, the returnees disembark, white kepi on the head, surgical mask on the mouth. They grasp their package in silence under the veiled eye of their leader. They were waiting for them. "Now we must first find our first family, who is in the regiment. Reintegrate our own house, which is here,"greets Major Joselito, whose hair is greying after thirty-one years of the Foreign Legion.

In Mali, it was five uninterrupted months of fire, sand and sleepless nights. Order had been passed in January to clear the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). In Operation Barkhane, it was the turn of the Legionnaires. The "Legion mandate", they rejoice today. For the foreign regiments were sent en masse: paratroopers from Calvi, riders from Carpiagne, sappers from Laudun. The Nîmes infantrymen arrived in the Sahel in early February with their armoured infantry fighting vehicles. The maneuver? If you listen to the chief of operations, Lieutenant-Colonel Pierre, it comes with a clear line. "Deploy as many people as possible on the ground in a sustainable way."

"Looking for the enemy where it evolves"
The legionnaires wanted it, this hunt for the jihadists Each of these combat professionals demanded their share of the balance sheet. They got it. Harassment, searches and sweeps, landed infantry combat, neutralizations at every opportunity. It was an exceptional mandate. It had been a long time since almost the entire regiment had left in this way, with 900 men: the "Dragon" group fulfilled its mission. "Pure happiness, it is there, to do the job for which one is paid, to look for the enemy where it evolves, to know everything about its paths, to the market where it supplies", notes Major Joselito. They can put it this way because, they all say, "everyone is home." Neither killed nor seriously injured. A third of these soldiers, 26 years on average, experienced their first external operation under the French flag in 2020. The men of the fourth company, returning from Mali, check that no parts of the armament are missing, in Nimes, on 31 July. EDOUARD ELIAS FOR "THE WORLD"

The "2nd foreigner" launched its companies in Gourma, a region of Mali located under the river, between Timbuktu and Gao. It is in this border area of Niger and Burkina that the EIGS is rampant. Officers refer to it as a "hunting area." A deserted dish of shady shrubs, sneaky tracks whose sinkings are waiting to break up vehicles, soils where every plant carries thorns. When the Legionnaires took their seats there, the Malian army was hit hard by the jihadist guerrillas. "We had to stop the deterioration of the situation and generate a balance sheet," said Colonel Arnaud Guerry, who will take command of the regiment within a few days. From the bottom line: prevent, capture, kill EIGS fighters, so. "The combat actions have systematically turned to our advantage."

"No half-measures"
Officers talk about "a very fast pace." Suffice to say hell. The military on the ground carried out uninterrupted operations, lasting four to six weeks, away from the bases of the sector, the cities of Gao and Gossi. They acted day and night, continuously, up to six nights a week, wishing to appear in the early morning where their opponents no longer expected them. "In Mali, no half-measures,"says Lieutenant Walter, a little blond with a sunburnt face who commanded the regiment's commando section. "The nights are either so dark that you can't see it even with our night visions, or as clear as the day." Colonel Arnaud Guerry, the regiment's corps chief, poses in front of the memorial in Nimes on 31 July. EDOUARD ELIAS FOR "THE WORLD"

May was the most physically demanding month, when temperatures climbed to 47 °C. A former soldier of Her Majesty, Corporal Greg, 30, tattooed like a rebel, appears straight out of a Liverpool rock band. He raises his hands with a fatalistic gesture: "The day... At night... The job... that is not the problem. The annoying thing is the heat! I'm English! Nothing to spoil the fun. “It was my first deployment. It was a good adventure.”

In the narratives, the men's step, the extension of the armoured vehicles display precise gauges. "Raids of 140 km at the bottom of the train during the day." "Motorized infiltrations for 50 km at night, the end of the road being on foot for an additional 15 km." When did we live? "You have to enjoy every moment,"Walter learned. "If you have five minutes, you eat, if you have ten, you sleep." But when the troop is disciplined and the environment attentive to its men, mutual aid does the rest, says the young lieutenant. We're moving forward. Always. The logistics company never stopped turning between the isolated posts of the Legionnaires, from the bases of Gao and Gossi. Three days of travel for trucks stuffed to the mouth of water and equipment, one day on site, three days back, one day of recharging. Go Forwards..
Ah! But sprogs! Thank you for the translation! Perhaps a lesson for those that may want to join!😉
 

mark wake

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It was actually Burkina Faso, but you're correct it is no place for tourists. I get a report from Garda World on Nigeria practically everyday on people being killed or taken hostages or shootouts with other gangs, or against the police.

View attachment 6415

Most of it is of course irrelevant unless you are looking for work in the region. I just got another today concerning an event which took place in BF yesterday. Some may ask why I have gone so far as to print out my screen? Is it to show off my cool powers of using a curseur ?
Well yes,
And no. I'm traumatised by the Night Jumper, AKA Loustic. I couldn't bare people thinking oh he's just full of sh$t, yeah like he's had a 171, alerts since September.

The report ▶ on BF
Ah! The night jumper clad in black! I wake up in a cold sweat 😰 thinking about him!🤔😅😂
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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It's a bit like them tourists last year in Benin that caused the death of the two Commando Marines...
As if Barkhane hasn't enough on it's plate
They, tourists or O.N.G.s, have a lot to answer for
I tried to find out who the NGO ACTED was. I started on their official website, nothing much happening on there unless you subscribe to their site or make a donation :unsure: Make a donation, eh?
Sorry, I may have got a bit ahead of myself. It turns out that the 8 Non Government Organisation French people were on a touristic outing to go and see some giraffes. The head people of the organization claim that they had followed strict security protocols by signaling their departure and their arrival at the point where they leave the the "yellow" zone, which is the main road, to then go inland.
Now once they have left the yellow zone and entered the orange zone... Well then what?
The head people had the neck to to claim that "there there was not enough security for NGOs". While a bunch of them have decided to go on a little excursion. I mean WTF.
I saw on the French news today that the government are looking into giving NGO staff diplomatic status :oops: . Are you kidding me?
When I was working in Mali the first time, we had several NGO buildings and residencies to garde. I remember going to a meeting with the head of UNHCR (the R stands for Refugees). What a f*cking joke, who is going to go to Mali as a refugee?:ROFLMAO: He was an American, who was the head of UNHCR North West Africa. I swear, the guy could not even speak French. He had a translator.
They would all (the NGO dudes) drive or be driven around in fancy SUVs and have villas, most would have swimming pools. During the day they would have one garde inside their residencial compound and 2 at night.
Back to the ACTED, why they were authorized to go on their little outing, without a guard of local Gendarmes or the army is beyond me. All that you have to do in these countries is to pay for an escort, Anyone who has never left his home country to go to a third world will be saying to themselves, no he's exaggerating, but I'm not.
Everyone is happy, the soldiers, their chefs and the people who are escorted.
Why the vehicle not tracked? Nowadays, it is so easy.
Anyway lots of questions to be answered.
10 lives lost. May they rest in peace.
 
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