Credit: Wikipedia Commons /  A French military helicopter over the Nigerien town Madama, which serves as a forward operating base for the French, Niger and Chad armies in Operation Barkhane in Sahel region of Africa.

By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

France conducted its first deployment of its new counter-terror special forces mission in the Africa Sahel region this month dubbed Task Force Takuba that will include several elite European troops among them from Sweden, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom.  The French-led special forces mission based in northern Mali comes as terror and violent attacks linked to militant Islamic groups in the Africa Sahel  region have increased dramatically during the past few years. 

“The security situation in Mali, and more broadly in the Sahel, remains a major concern. Despite constant engagement by national, regional and international forces, organized armed groups keep destabilizing large parts of Mali and are now present in Niger and Burkina Faso. Recent attacks in the three-border region, where the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS)/Daesh is challenging the Sahelian states authority, has forced the regional authorities and the international community to focus more efforts on this area.”

-Task Force Takuba: political statement by the governments of Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Mali, Niger, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

“Task Force Takuba is currently carrying out its first operation with Malian soldiers, facing terrorist groups, to protect civilian populations and gradually allow the installation of essential public services, such as schools. By early 2021, Sweden will join us. The Italians have also decided to join us and are currently evaluating the conditions of their engagement. Europe is making a concrete commitment to the Sahel. The Czech Parliament has confirmed it. Task Force Takuba will soon welcome its Czech brothers in arms. This unprecedented group of European special forces accompanying Malian soldiers continues to grow in strength.

-Florence Parly,  France Minister of the Armed Forces

La Task Force Takuba est actuellement en train de conduire sa première opération avec les soldats maliens, face aux groupes terroristes, pour protéger les populations civiles et permettre progressivement l'installation des services publics essentiels, comme les écoles.

— Florence Parly (@florence_parly) October 28, 2020

New Task Force To Bolster France Operation Barkhane, G5 Sahel Joint Action 

“In order to counter and degrade terrorist resilience, and to accompany the efforts of operation Barkhane
and the G5 Sahel Joint Force, an effective and tailored response is of vital importance,” the Task Force Takuba statement continued.   “At the request of the Malian and Nigerien authorities, BELGIUM, CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK, ESTONIA, FRANCE, GERMANY, the NETHERLANDS, NORWAY, PORTUGAL, SWEDEN and the UNITED KINGDOM politically support the creation of a task force, integrated to the command of operation Barkhane, aiming at tackling the terrorist groups in the Liptako region.”

Takuba will be under the command of France’s Operation ‘Barkhane’ regional counter-insurgency mission.

Task Force Takuba began  an initial operational capability (IOC) in the summer of 2020 and expected to become operational (FOC) by early 2021.