1st March 2013

200 British Troops to be

Sent to Mali

Last updated at 17:09

The UK is to deploy about 200 military personnel to Mali and West Africa to support French forces, No 10 has said.

Number 10 said 200 UK troops would be sent to train an African regional force outside Mali, with up to 40 more on an EU training mission inside Mali. A further 70 RAF personnel will oversee the use of a Sentinel surveillance in the region and 20 will staff a C-17 transport plane for a further three months.
British sources stressed again that Britain would have no combat role in Mali, but disclosed for the first time that Britain had

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Provide £5m to assist in the training of West African forces through two UN funds - £3m directed to Afisma (African-led International Support Mission to Mali) and £2m to support political processes in Mali.
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said there were concerns about “mission creep”.
“The UK commitment to Mali has grown from lending the French two transport aircraft to the deployment of perhaps hundreds of troops to the region,” he said “UK trainers may be non-combat but that does not mean they are without risk.”
In a separate development, Downing Street said UK Prime Minister David Cameron was to visit neighbouring Algeria on Wednesday.
The trip comes in the wake of a hostage crisis that left four Britons and a UK resident dead and two Britons believed dead. During the siege, one statement purporting to be from the hostage-takers called for an end to the French military intervention against Islamist militants in Mali.
Number 10 is also considering who will provide “force protection” for the military advisers. At present, it is envisaged the force protection will not be provided by British soldiers. It is possible existing French forces in Mali could be used.
Former defence minister Sir Nick Harvey warned the number of personnel involved could rise if the UK had to provide its own force protection.
“If they (the military advisers) are spread out in different locations providing technical advice to different aspects of the Malian forces then those numbers will begin to climb quite rapidly,” he said.
It could take “years” for the British troops to make a difference to the “ill-trained” Malian army, he said.
The former head of the Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, backed the government’s position but warned that nations involved may face a “protracted guerrilla warfare”.

offered to run with the French a combined joint logistics headquarters inside Mali. The UK made the offer at a meeting in Paris attended by the prime minister's national security adviser, Sir Kim Darroch. The offer was rejected by the French at this stage as unnecessary, but shows the scale of the UK preparedness to help its closest military ally in Europe.

The UK will offer France:
To continue to allow the use of one of two C-17 transport planes, which are already flying French equipment to and from Mali, for three months. The RAF has also provided a Sentinel surveillance aircraft.
Allow the US - which has been involved in airlifting French soldiers and equipment to Mali - to operate air refuelling flights out of Britain.
Offer a roll-on, roll-off Merchant Navy ferry to help transport equipment to the French force in Mali. It would dock at a port in a West African state to enable the kit to be moved across land to Mali.

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