Britain is significantly stepping up its military support in
West Africa to help combat the world's fastest growing Islamist-led
insurgency.
Over the past month, British troops have been helping train local forces to fight extremism in the Sahel.
The
region, a semi-arid stretch of land just south of the Sahara Desert,
has been a frontline in the war against Islamist militancy for almost a
decade.
Later this year, 250 British soldiers will join a UN mission in Mali.
It has been described as the most dangerous peacekeeping operation in the world.
In
Senegal, a team of around 30 UK soldiers and Royal Marines have been
training special forces from a number of West African nations in a
US-led counter-terrorism exercise involving more than 1,600 troops.
Maj
John House has been leading the British element of the training in
Senegal with the focus on infantry skills and counter-terrorism
operations.
He said it was in Britain's interests to get more involved in the region.
"If
we don't act we may find the problems getting closer to our door," he
said. "The more they have a presence in the region, the more we can feel
the effect back in the UK." West African special forces carry out a counter-terrorism exercise
Officers from US Special Operations Command Africa, which has been responsible for overseeing the exercise, are just as blunt.
US
Maj Chris Giaquinto said the extremists "want to create a safe haven in
Africa in order to grow and facilitate attacks, possibly in Europe or
the United States".
There are now multiple extremist groups
operating across the sub-Saharan region known as the Sahel. They include
ones linked to the so-called Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Commander Djibril Diawara, of the Senegalese Armed Forces, described the situation as "alarming".
Over the past year the extremists have spread south from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The
exercise culminated with special forces troops from Cameroon, Morocco
and Nigeria conducting a raid on a village to take out an unspecified
group of extremists.
Some of those involved have already been doing this
for real. Lt Unyine Collins, of the Nigerian Special Boat Service, has
spent seven months on the frontline fighting Boko Haram.
He
described a ruthless enemy using brutal tactics. "They use suicide
bombers, improvised explosive devices, mines, basically they use the
same tactics as ISIS," he said.
It's an indication of the potential threats that 250 British troops will be facing when they enter Mali later this year.
They
may be part of a peacekeeping mission, but the British will be
conducting long-range reconnaissance patrols into hostile territory.
Nearly
200 UN peacekeepers have already lost their lives in Mali. France,
which has more than 5,000 troops in the country, has also suffered
casualties there.
So is Britain about to become mired in another long-drawn conflict?
Brig
Gus Fair, commander of the Specialised Infantry Group, insisted it
would not become another Afghanistan or Iraq for the British Army.
He
said that "we are up front in seeing this as a regional problem for a
regional solution", adding that it involved partnering nations rather
than taking direct sovereign intervention.
Nevertheless, the
British Army's peacekeeping mission in Mali will probably be the most
dangerous task it has faced since the end of combat operations in
Helmand.
The harsh reality is that, so far, Western support -
along with international troops and peacekeepers - has been unable to
turn the rising tide of extremism in the region. Media captionJonathan Beale had access to African Special Forces training in Senegal
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51699107
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