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The first troops from a 100-member British contingent to be deployed alongside French counter-terrorism forces in West Africa have arrived in the region along with heavy-lift helicopters, the French military said Thursday.
"The first troops from the British Chinook deployment, which will comprise three heavy transport helicopters and will be deployed in Gao ( northern Mali) have arrived," armed forces spokesman Colonel Patrik Steiger said.
The advance party from a contingent that will be in place by the end of the summer arrived in Niamey, the capital of Niger, Mali's neighbour to the east, Steiger added.
In January, Prime Minister Theresa May promised French President Emmanuel Macron that Britain would step up its support for France's Barkhane mission, which has been pursuing jihadist groups across the arid Sahel region since 2014.
May said that although Britain was preparing to leave the EU, "this does not mean that the UK is leaving Europe," stressing Britain's commitment to its cooperation with France in the area of defence.
Until now Britain's contribution to France's operations in the Sahel region had been limited to the regular use of a C-17 troop transporter.
Steiger said the US-made Chinook helicopters, which can carry about 40 troops, would be "very useful" for the mobility of the Barkhane force.
In 2013, the French military intervened in Mali to help rout Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda from the country's desert north.
Within days French-backed forces had recaptured all of northern Mali's towns but the jihadists have continued to carry out attacks from their rear bases in the desert, while stepping up their operations in neighbouring countries.
10 Tanzanian army reservists killed in bus crash
Nairobi (AFP) June 14, 2018 -
At least ten Tanzanian army reservists were killed on Thursday when their overcrowded and dilapidated bus overturned in the south of the country, police and witnesses said.
The army had rented the bus to transport 210 reservists to a training camp when it crashed in Igodima in Mbeya region.
Regional police commander Mussa Taibu blamed the accident on both speeding and the run-down state of the bus.
"We regret that for now ten of the 210 people on board have died, the 200 others were wounded," the commander said.
"The bus is really in a bad state, it should not have been rented."
Tanzanian President John Magufuli expressed "deep sadness" at the deaths and put the toll at 13: 11 reservists, one soldier from the Tanzanian People's Defence Forces and the bus driver.
A local resident who saw the aftermath of the crash said: "This is the type of bus we see often on the roads in Tanzania, it has a capacity to transport 80 to 85 people."
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