The Times - UK (2022-02-16)

28 2GM Wednesday February 16 2022 | the times

Wo r l d

ration of the moon, Mars and beyond.

The first, Polaris Dawn, will involve de-

pressurising the Crew Dragon capsule

to expose the crew to the vacuum of

space and test new life-support space-

suits intended for long-duration mis-

sions. At least two of the crew will go

outside, at an altitude of about 500km.

Polaris Dawn will also travel through

the Van Allen radiation belts that ring

the Earth. The crew will gather data to

help scientists to understand the effects

of radiation on the human body and

France has sent thousands
of troops to fight jihadists
in the country since 2013

France is to pull its troops out of Mali,
ending its longest-running counter-
terrorism operation and abandoning
vast swathes of desert to jihadists and
Russian mercenaries.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French
foreign minister, indicated that thou-
sands of soldiers would leave, with an
official announcement expected in the
coming days, after an escalating diplo-
matic spat with its former colony.
British troops deployed in what is
already considered the world’s most
dangerous peacekeeping mission will
be more exposed to jihadist attacks as a
result, British Army sources said.
Thousands of French troops have
been fighting insurgents in Mali linked
to al-Qaeda and Islamic State since
2013, when they repelled an attempt to
seize the capital, Bamako. Despite a
multinational effort involving the
United Nations, foreign and local

troops have been increasingly unable to
suppress the violence, which has spilled
into neighbouring countries, claiming
thousands of lives and forcing millions
to leave their homes.
A Frenchman was among nine
people killed in two attacks on a
national park in Benin last week, as
Islamists move south towards the coast.
France responded with air strikes, kill-
ing 40 fighters believed to be responsi-
ble.
While the violence has con-
tinued, anti-French sentiment in
the region has risen and two suc-
cessive coups in Mali have under-
mined diplomatic relations.
The ruling military junta has
angered the French by
enlisting the help of the
Wagner Group — Russian
mercenaries who have
operated around Africa
and are linked to the
Kremlin — while re-
peatedly delaying demo-
cratic elections. The junta
also expelled a small Danish
force that it said had come un-
invited, telling France, which

MALI NIGER

CHAD

MAURITANIA

BURKINA

Bamako FASO

Sahel Region

500 miles

BENIN

France abandons

Mali to jihadists and

Putin’s mercenaries

intervened, to keep its “colonial reflex-

es” to itself.

France held crunch talks with Euro-

pean allies on Monday to decide its next

steps after the French ambassador to

Mali was expelled at the end of last

month.

Le Drian later told the TV channel

France 5 that French troops involved in

Operation Barkhane would move to

Mali’s neighbours. About half of those

involved in the campaign in the Sahel,

the band of semi-arid land that stretch-

es across Africa, are in Mali.

“If the conditions are no longer in

place so that we can act in Mali, which

is clearly the case, then we will continue

to fight terrorism next door with the

Sahel countries,” he said. “The presi-

dent wants us to reorganise. We aren’t

going, but we will reorganise to ensure

the fight against terrorism continues.”

He added that “Wagner now num-

bers 1,000” in Mali, which he said was

incompatible with a continuing French

military presence. He said the merce-

naries’ stated objective was to “protect

the junta”.

Diplomats said an official announce-

ment on a French withdrawal would be

made as early as this week. President

Macron had already unveiled plans to

reduce the French effort in the region

from 5,000 personnel to less than

3,000, with about 1,000 leaving late last

year. France has been nurturing a

smaller Europe-wide task force that is

likely to leave if France does.

A UN peacekeeping mission of

13,000 troops also operates in Mali,

among them 300 Britons. Last year

they were involved in Britain’s first

lethal gun battle with regular troops

since 2014, killing two suspected jihad-

ists. A British Army source formerly

involved in the mission, known as Min-

usma, said the fight against the Islamic

State in the Greater Sahara and Jama’at

Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, the main

jihadist groups, would become harder

due to the French withdrawal.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence is

assessing what the French withdrawal

means for its four Chinook helicopters

that are on the Operation Barkhane

mission. They will no longer be needed

on the counter-terrorism mission and

could be transferred to the UN peace-

keeping mission. “There’s still lots to

work out and no decisions have been

made”, a defence source said.

A British defence source added: “We

strongly warned Mali government

against engaging with Wagner. Wagner

deployments elsewhere in Africa have

largely been unsuccessful and frankly

exploit the limited wealth of the coun-

try that have engaged them.”

Cameron Hudson, a former US State

Department official and Sahel special-

ist, said that a withdrawal by the French

within 100 days of a Russian deploy-

ment looked “like a major strategic

blow to the West”. It also increased the

prospect of the UN deciding that its

own presence was unsustainable.

Mali
Richard Assheton Lagos
Jane Flanagan Cape Town

O

ne of the

world’s most

luxurious

travel

experiences

has been taken out of

service after derailments

and an arson attack (Jane

Flanagan writes).

The Blue Train,

marketed as Africa’s

Africa laments

murder of its

Orient Express

A billionaire has joined forces with

Elon Musk’s SpaceX to jointly finance

three missions that will include the first

private spacewalk and the first crewed

flight of the SpaceX Starship vehicle.

Jared Isaacman’s Polaris programme

will start with a five-day flight aboard a

SpaceX Crew Dragon this year that will

take him and three crewmates further

from Earth than anyone has gone in the

50 years since the Apollo moon flights.

“Polaris is the next chapter in our

journey to make humanity a truly

spacefaring civilisation,” he said.

Isaacman, 39, who founded the pay-

ment processing company Shift4 at the

age of 16, will use the flights to test new

technologies needed for human explo-

Jared Isaacman’s

programme will

test spacesuits for

longer missions

Billionaire plans private

United States

Jacqui Goddard Miami

Macron has

cut his losses

Analysis

F

rance’s imminent

withdrawal from Mali is

a humiliating end to its

longest foreign military

engagement since the

close of the Algerian war in 1962

(Charles Bremner writes).

Bitterness over continuing

French political and economic

involvement in its former “back

yard” of West Africa fed the

rejection of Operation Barkhane,

as the mission is known.

President Hollande launched

the campaign in 2014. After

thousands of deaths, including 53

French service personnel, Paris

has accepted that the campaign

is at a stalemate.

Frustrated by hostility from

Mali’s ruling junta, the

appearance of Russian

mercenaries, and anti-French

sentiment even from the French-

speaking elite, President Macron

is seeking to cut losses.

Paris rejects comparisons with

the US exit from Kabul and

insists it is redeploying forces,

not retreating. It has said it will

continue to fight terrorism from

Chad and possibly Burkina Faso,

Mauritania and Niger.

Macron will be determined to

keep alive Operation Takuba, an

800-strong EU multinational task

force that he promoted to back

up the French presence in Mali.

After a bumpy start, it is not

clear if it will survive France’s

withdrawal.

The pullout of French forces

raises questions over the fate of

the 13,000 UN peacekeepers

known as Minusma. Its rules of

engagement make it ineffective

against the Islamist fighters. Its

European contingents, which

have 300 Britons and 1,000

Germans, rely on France for

logistics and medical services.

Macron’s electoral

opponents are on the

offensive over their

belief that France has

been dragged into a

quagmire, lost the

information war and

failed to stand up to

bullying by corrupt

local regimes.

“Our soldiers are

dying so a country

can humiliate us,”

Éric Zemmour, the

anti-Islam pundit, said.

h

l

BOTSWANA

NAMIBIA

Johannesburg Pretoria

Cape

To w n

Stellenbosch

Kimberley

INDIAN

OCEAN

SOUTH

AFRICA

100 miles

Great Karoo

Blue Train route