Forces Armées et de Sécurité du Mali

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Malian soldiers 2008
Malian medic
Former Malian Defense Secretary Natie Plea with the troops during a joint exercise between Malian and U.S. soldiers

The Military of Mali are the armed forces of Mali . They consist of an army (" Armée de terre "), an air force (" Force aérienne de la République du Mali "), a small navy , a presidential guard and a gendarmerie . In summer 2012, the Malian Ministry of Defense stated that the army had around 4,000 soldiers available.

In 2017, Mali spent just under 3.1 percent of its economic output, or $ 461 million, on its armed forces.

history

Mali's armed forces were established on October 1, 1960. In 1968 the military launched a coup against the then Malian government and installed Moussa Traoré as the new president. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Malian military received weapons from the Soviet Union, according to the CIA . In addition, soldiers from the Soviet Army were stationed in Mali. Relations with the Soviet Union as well as with France had been strengthened after the coup. The contracts concluded at the time with the Soviet Union regarding the Malian army had a volume of 21 million US dollars .

In 1974 there was a border conflict with Burkina Faso over the Agacher strip , with a MiG-17 crashing on the Malian side for reasons unknown. After a ceasefire , the conflict escalated again in 1985 after Mali concentrated its troops in the border area on December 20. On December 25, the war over the Agacher Strip broke out again and lasted until December 30, after several failed armistice agreements.

After many governments in the so-called Eastern Bloc could no longer survive and democratic forms of government prevailed, the economic problems in Mali also worsened. 1991 coup , the military again and ushered in democratic change. As early as 1990, there were several Tuareg rebellions in northern Mali . The conflict began even before Moussa Traoré's dismissal and in 1991 led to a first agreement with the Fronts Unifiés de l'Azawad . In 1996, following further agreements with the rebels, the rebels were even integrated into the army. In 1998, around 70 soldiers from the US 3rd Special Forces Group trained a Malian battalion for peace missions as part of the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) training program .

In a hostage situation in 2003 in the German , Swiss and Dutch tourists Malian military helped pick up the trail to the group kidnapped in the north of the country.

Motivated by the war on terrorism , the US armed forces supported Malian soldiers as part of the Pan-Sahel initiative by conducting joint exercises with them. In 2006, however, some previously integrated Tuareg rebels deserted , which led to a more or less open civil war . As a result, the army lost control in numerous areas. After the civil war in Libya (2011) , numerous Tuareg returned to Mali who had previously fought as mercenaries on the side of Muammar al-Gaddafi . The National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA), founded by returned Tuareg fighters, was able to conquer other villages in the border area with Niger and Mauritania . The Malian armed forces, in turn, attacked the rebels using helicopters stationed in Kidal and Gao .

Harbin Z-9 helicopter of the Mali Air Force 2005

Since 2007, the Malian armed forces have also been supported by the Bundeswehr . Discarded equipment, including 32 trucks, 14 small boats and four Wolf off-road vehicles, was brought to Mali by the Bundeswehr. In 2009, Mali is an official partner country for equipment aid for foreign armed forces. Furthermore, a training center for pioneers was built in Mali. In 2011, the Malian Paratrooper Unit 33e Regiment des Commandos Parachutistes was trained by soldiers from the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR).

On March 21, 2012, there was a military coup . The coup plotters justified the coup with President Amadou Toumani Touré's inability to control the Tuareg uprising in the north of the country. However, after the coup, the army could not hold the areas in the north and gradually lost the cities of Kidal , Gao and Timbuktu to Tuareg rebels. Since the situation worsened with the increasing influence of the Islamist group Ansar Dine among the Tuareg, the idea of ​​international intervention together with the Malian armed forces gained more and more supporters.

Due to the successes of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA), the regular armed forces had to fight with numerous deserters since summer 2012.

Since January 11, 2013, France has been supporting Mali in the fight against the Islamists with the Opération Serval .

On August 20, 2020, the military putsch again (see coup in Mali 2020 ). This was preceded by several weeks in which the population protested against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and demanded that he resign from his office. Members of the government, including the president , were forced to resign by the military during the coup.

Forces Patriotiques de Resistance (FPR)

After the coup in March 2012 , the armed forces got into disarray and lost their fighting strength. The Islamists were able to advance further south. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called for the formation of a government of national unity. In addition to the regular armed forces, several armed militias were formed to defend their homeland and were preparing to recapture the areas occupied by Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM). In order to coordinate the individual militias, the Forces Patriotiques de Résistance (FPR) were announced at a press conference in Bamako on July 21 .

The FPR was formed from the following self-defense militias:

  • Ganda-Koy with 2,000 fighters under the leadership of Harouna Touré and mainly deployed in the Gao region . Around 400 Ganda-Koy fighters are said to have joined the Islamist Ansar Dine in Douentza in July 2012 .
  • Ganda-Iso with 1,300 fighters under the leadership of Muhammad Attaib Maiga
  • Forces de Liberation des Régions Nord du Mali (FLN)
  • Alliance des Communautés de la Région de Tombouctou (ACRT)
  • Force Armée Contre l'Occupation (FACO) and
  • Cercle de Réflexion et d'Action (CRA)

A large part of the FPR belongs to the ethnic groups of the Fulbe and Songhai .

Another militia established in Gao is the Popular Movement Soni Ali Ber, led by Al-Hadj Tandjina.

Posting abroad

Mali's armed forces took part in peace missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as in Liberia , Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic .

Military training

Division General Mahamane Toure , Director of the Ecole de Maintien de la Paix

The Malian armed forces maintain the following schools:

organization

The Malian armed forces are divided into eight different regions:

Web links

Commons : Military of Mali  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Ministry of Defense website (French)
  • Working group for research into the causes of war (AKUF) of the Research Center for War, Armaments and Development (FKRE), University of Hamburg: Report on the military conflicts from the 1990s to 2008 [1]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Navy (Mali). October 17, 2007, accessed January 19, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b Carsten Luther: Mali's neighbors urge intervention. Standstill in the south, graves destroyed in the north and Sharia law: Mali needs help. Military intervention against the Islamists is becoming more likely. In: Zeit Online. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, July 13, 2012, accessed on July 14, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Military expenditure by country as percentage of gross domestic product 2001-2017. SIPRI, accessed July 17, 2018 .
  4. ^ Military expenditure by country in US $ 2001-2017. SIPRI, accessed July 17, 2018 .
  5. ↑ S. Konate: FETE DE L'ARMEE: BIENTÔT UN DEMI SIÈCLE D'EXISTENCE. (No longer available online.) In: L'Essor n ° 16365 du - 2009-01-19. January 19, 2009, archived from the original on July 22, 2011 ; Retrieved March 22, 2012 (French).
  6. ^ Soviet Military Policy in the World. October 21, 1976, archived from the original on November 5, 2010 ; accessed on March 22, 2012 (English).
  7. ↑ Tom Cooper : Burkina Faso and Mali, Agacher Strip War, 1985. July 31, 2004, accessed on March 22, 2012 (English).
  8. ^ Frank Hauke, Arno Heißmeyer: Sahara: The price of freedom. After months, 14 tourists return to their homeland - for a ransom that nobody wants to have paid. In: FOCUS magazine. Hubert Burda Media, August 25, 2003, accessed on March 22, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Dominic Johnson: With helicopters against rebels. The government has lost control of large parts of the desert-covered north of Mali to a Tuareg rebel army. Tens of thousands are on the run. In: taz online. February 14, 2012, accessed March 22, 2012 .
  10. ^ Hauke ​​Friederichs: The Bundeswehr has long been in Mali. In: Zeit Online. Zeit Online GmbH, October 29, 2012, p. 1 , accessed on November 4, 2012 .
  11. ↑ Paratroopers trained in Canada led counter-coup in Mali, but presidential guard unit failed to regain control. Soldiers from the parachute regiment were captured. They are believed to have been tortured and murdered by those behind Mali's coup. January 26, 2013, accessed April 9, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Putschists are apparently taking power in Mali. Retrieved March 22, 2012 .
  13. ↑ Norbert Hahn: July 27th, 2020. People in Mali have been protesting against President Keita for weeks. The security forces react repressively. A unit trained by the EU is also said to have fired sharply. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
  14. ^ Coup in Mali: neighbors discuss the consequences. August 20, 2020, accessed on August 23, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Library of Congress - Federal Research Division: Country Profile: Mali , January 2005. (PDF; 138 kB) Retrieved March 22, 2012 .
  16. ↑ a b 10,000th Malian Sodlier tranided by EUTM since 2013. (pdf) May 2017, accessed on April 9, 2018 (English).
  17. ↑ a b c d Tournoi inter-régions militaires: LA 3è RéGION MILITAIRE FAIT COUP DOUBLE. January 3, 2014, accessed April 9, 2018 (French).
  18. ^ ASS Communitiy Chaptes: Mali. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 28, 2010 ; Retrieved March 22, 2012 .
  19. ↑ Lt. Phillip Ulmer: 1/10 Special Forces Group Supports Pan Sahel Initiative. (No longer available online.) March 4, 2004, archived from the original on September 26, 2012 ; accessed on March 22, 2012 (English).