Credit: Wikipedia / 35e RAP /   French troops of the 35th Parachute Artillery Regiment (35e RAP) board a helicopter during a mission.

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

France will continue its Operation Barkhane anti-insurgent campaign in Mali’s Sahel region despite a military coup earlier this week in the West African nation, the French defense minister on Thursday.  Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta resigned after a military mutiny that has plunged the country in to political chaos. President Keïta and Prime Minister Boubou Cissé were arrested and taken to a military camp near the capital Bamako.  Some 5,000 French troops are installed in the Sahel as part of France’s operation against terrorist militants there.

“Operation Barkhane, requested by the Malians and authorized by the UN Security Council, continues. French soldiers, in conjunction with European and Sahelian partners, continue to carry out their mission with professionalism, for the benefit of everyone’s security.”

-French Defense Minister Florence Parly

L’opération Barkhane, demandée par les Maliens et autorisée par le Conseil de Sécurité de l'ONU, se poursuit. Les militaires français en lien avec les partenaires européens et sahéliens, continuent d'assurer leur mission avec professionnalisme, au bénéfice de la sécurité de tous. https://t.co/5srANBG2sw

— Florence Parly (@florence_parly) August 20, 2020

 “In Mali, power must be returned to civilians and milestones must be laid for the return to constitutional order. President Keita, his prime minister and members of the government must be released without delay and their safety guaranteed.”

-French President Emmanuel Macron said via Twitter

Operation Barkhane is an ongoing anti-insurgent operation started on August 1, 2014 which is led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa’s Sahel region. The roughly 5,000-strong French force is permanently headquartered in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The operation is lead in cooperation with five countries, and former French colonies, that span the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. These countries are collectively referred to as the “G5 Sahel”. The operation is named after a crescent-shaped dune in the Sahara desert.

44 FRENCH SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFRICA SAHEL SINCE  2014

French brigadier-chef Andy Fila died in north-central Africa  Chad on July 31, 2020.   / Etat Major des Armées

Forty Four soldiers have been killed from France’s Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region since it first stationed troops there in 2014 to help train and assist local forces against Islamic insurgents.   On July 31, 2020, Andy Fila,  a 25-year-old,  a French brigadier-chef of the infantry regiment,  was fatally hit by the explosion of a gas cylinder while carrying out an intervention on a refrigeration unit at the Kossei base in N’Djamena. 

1st Class Parachute Hussar Tojohasina Razafintsalama, of the France  1st Parachute Hussar Regiment of Tarbes, died in action Jul. 23, 2020   in Mali. /  Etat Major des Armées

 On July, 23, 2020,  Tojohasina Razafintsalama, a  soldier of the French force Barkhane in the west Africa Sahel was killed   in the region of Gossi, in the center of Mali, during fighting against  armed terrorist groups, the Elysee said.    Razafintsalama, 25-years-old,   born in Mahazarivo, Madagasca, was  killed  when an improvised explosive device was triggered next to his armoured vehicle.

MALI  Protesters Call For French Soldiers To Leave

Before President Keïta resigned this week, capital Mali city Bamako was the center of massive protests during the  past months calling for the president to give up power. There were also protests calling on the French army to leave Mali. 

“Large protests have been taking place in Bamako, the capital of Mali, demanding that French troops leave the country.” – the UK Guardian wrote Feb. 20, 2020. 

“We marched for them to leave, and now they send 600 more,” one blogger in Mali wrote in response to the news that more French soldiers were to be deployed to the Sahel.

President Macron says the French Operation Barkhane, which replaced Serval in 2014, exists in the name of the “collective security” of the Sahel and the wider world, the UK Guardian wrote.

“But France still has significant commercial and political interests in the region. The state-owned energy company, Orano, gets a large proportion of its uranium from Niger. Total has oil fields in Mali. The French have a military base in Chad (when Macron visited in 2018, he brought enough champagne for 1,300 troops”) – UK Guardian