Actualité militaire au Niger

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malikos
Mulazim Awal (ملازم أول)
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Actualité militaire au Niger

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NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SAHELIAN SUN
During a visit to the EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia, the naval mission countering migrant smuggling and trafficking in the southern central Mediterranean, the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, confirmed the deployment of 470 of the country’s troops in Niger. ‘We have to continue to work, concentrating our attention and energies on the threat of people trafficking and terrorism in the Sahel,’ he explained. The troops, accompanied by 150 vehicles, are expected to join the French troops located at the Madama military base, 100 kilometres from the Nigerien-Libyan border. While this move can be seen as part of the commitment to contribute to the G5 Sahel expressed during the G5 Summit, Italy’s decision is a continuation of the stance the country has adopted towards migration in the past year, as well as an instrument to assert itself as a constructive EU security player.

In 2017 Italy played a key role in brokering ‘migration-mitigating deals’ on behalf of the EU, and also – as a country of first arrival – to relieve the pressure of irregular migration at home. The Italian Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Interior, along with the Prime Minister, hosted numerous talks with local authorities from the Fezzan (the southwestern region of Libya bordering Niger) to discuss border-control measures. They also facilitated several high-level meetings between diplomats and EU, UN and government representatives to discuss development cooperation, illegal immigration, human trafficking, fuel smuggling, reinforcement of border security, repatriation and assisted voluntary return.

In May 2017, the Italian Minister of Interior, Marco Minniti, met in Rome with his Libya, Chad and Niger colleagues to establish new reception structures for irregular migrants in Africa and to agree on future investment in police training for border control. After threatening to close its harbours to foreign non-governmental organisations, Italy adopted the EU-backed Code of Conduct of Sea Operations for NGOs, a controversial set of regulations aimed at reducing the scope of maritime rescue operations. Shortly afterwards, Libya established its own exclusive maritime search and rescue (SAR) zone as requested by the EU, where only the Libyan Coast Guard could conduct SAR operations to rescue migrants. Minniti sees the deals with Libya as a way forward for Europe: ‘What Italy did in Libya is a model to deal with migrant flows without erecting borders or barbed wire barriers.’

Against this backdrop, the assignment of Italian troops to the north of Niger should come as little surprise, especially since Italy and Germany had already advocated for a similar EU mission in early 2017. About 80% of the migrants and refugees who reach the shores of Italy must cross the Sahel and Libya on their way to the Mediterranean. In early 2015, Agadez, the administrative unit of the Nigerien state nearest to the portion of desert that connects it to Libya, had become a major smuggling hub on the road to Italy. Heavy securitisation measures and the criminalisation of human smuggling led to a substantial decrease in northbound migratory flows. However, the Sahel, and northern Niger in particular, remain important transit areas for mixed-migration flows. The Nigerien-Libyan border, which extends for about 600 kilometres, is a porous one that guarantees passage to experienced smugglers, and Libya is still a sought-after transit country.

The arrival of the initial contingent of Italian soldiers coincided with the opening of the Italian Embassy in the Nigerien capital, Niamey – Italy’s first and only Sahelian embassy. The decision to install a diplomatic mission in Niger was taken in December 2016 in light of the increasingly important role played by Niamey as a strategic partner in halting migration and maintaining regional stability. In his inaugural speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Angelino Alfano stressed that the event represents the culmination of a yearlong series of meetings between the two countries that committed to working ever more closely with each other. It is against this backdrop, and in the name of stronger cooperation, he explained, that Italian troops will be deployed to train the Nigerien army, but also to proactively surveil and control the territory to deter all illicit trafficking, and migrant smuggling in particular.

An added value of the deployment of Italian troops in northern Niger is that it allows for the repositioning of Italy as a constructive EU security player. First and foremost, this course of action will guarantee Italy a greater say on the EU defence and security agenda and will allow for its active involvement in reform processes alongside Germany and France, who are spearheading the current debate on initiatives such as the Permanent Structured Cooperation on security and defence (PESCO). Moreover, this intervention will facilitate a rapprochement between Italy and France, who have seen a divergence in their strategic positions in the aftermath of the 2011 French intervention in Libya. The Italian government harshly criticised the French initiative and decided not to support its subsequent intervention in Mali in 2013, leading to a climate of disagreement between Paris and Rome. This stands in stark contrast to Germany, which provided support to the 2013 French-led Barkhane mission in the Sahel. In addition to curbing smuggling, Italian troops are now expected to assist the operation Barkhane, which will allow for the rotation of French troops that have been stationed in the region since 2013.

"An added value of the deployment of Italian troops in northern Niger is that it allows for the repositioning of Italy as a constructive EU security player."

From the above, it follows that the deployment of Italian troops in northern Niger serves several Italian agendas. What is less clear is how this deployment will serve Niger itself, where securitised approaches to migration management have already created a dangerous cocktail of increased economic hardship, delegitimised authorities, and increased insecurity. Previous research conducted by the Conflict Research Unit of the Clingendael Institute shows that the focus on securitising the borders of transit countries - like Niger - concentrates on short-term achievements without considering local contingencies and without examining the possible implications or side-effects of these interventions. This is symptomatic of the risk logic that dominates the current debate on migration and of the larger inherent contradiction in the EU migration agenda. On the one hand, EU policies and instruments emphasise the development-migration-security nexus and depict migration as a structural phenomenon that needs to be addressed by a long-term commitment. On the other hand, EU responses focus on immediate goals and tackle the migration question as a threat by making use of supposed quick fixes that tend to take the form of securitised measures.

Yet, these measures might turn mutually disadvantageous for both the transit countries and the EU. Simply by being present on the territory, international actors change local political calculations, incentives, and structures. Interventions aimed at curbing migration risk creating ruptures in the fragile balances that certain regions have and might even subvert the priorities and political agendas that states have, thus increasing insecurity. The recent decision to deploy Italian troops in Niger suggests, however, that EU reactions to migration still largely ignore the strong links between migration, local economies, governance and security – and that few changes can be expected in this policy line in the near future.
https://www.clingendael.org/publication ... deployment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama
Military Capabilities
French A400M conducts first mission in Sahel
Nicholas Fiorenza - Jane's Defence Weekly
05 October 2017

A French A400M conducted its first operational tactical mission in Sahel. (French Ministry of Defence)
A French A400M conducted its first operational tactical mission in Sahel. (French Ministry of Defence)
A French Air Force A400M conducted its first operational-tactical mission in Sahel on 1 September, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 4 October. The aircraft from the 61st Transport Squadron at Air Base 123 in Orléans landed in Madama in Niger.

Open source satellite imagery shows the unpaved runway at Madama to be 1,800–1,850 m long.

Want to read more? For analysis on this article and access to all our insight content, please enquire about our subscription options
http://www.janes.com/article/74647/fren ... n-in-sahel

Topic author
malikos
Mulazim Awal (ملازم أول)
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Re: Actualite militaire au NIGER

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Niger has been a regular participant in regional military exercises including Flintlock. Exercise Flintlock is an annual, African-led special operations forces exercise which has strengthened key partner nation forces throughout North and West Africa as well as European and North American special operations forces since 2005. Niger hosted Flintlock in 2014, was one of the locations of Flintlock in 2017, and is scheduled to host this year’s exercise.

Waldhauser also visited Airbase 201 in Agadez to meet with base leadership and received updates on the construction happening there. While in Agadez, they also met with local civic, government, and Nigerien military leaders.

At the request of, and in close coordination with the Government of Niger and the Nigerien Armed Forces, AFRICOM is establishing a temporary, expeditionary contingency support location in Agadez. Geographically and strategically
http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?o ... Itemid=111

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malikos
Mulazim Awal (ملازم أول)
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Re: Actualite militaire au NIGER

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Two Niger soldiers die fighting off ‘Boko Haram raid’

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/two ... d-2/[quote]

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/two ... am-raid-2/
[/quote]

Topic author
malikos
Mulazim Awal (ملازم أول)
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Re: Actualite militaire au NIGER

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“Also the military interventions have been intensified to increase the security context of localities around the Lake Chad Basin. Despite all these efforts, sporadic attacks affecting civilians continue to be reported in the affected areas,” she added
https://thedefensepost.com/2018/01/29/n ... aths-fall/

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malikos
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Re: Actualite militaire au NIGER

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Le Niger pas satisfait de la coopération militaire occidentale (Audio)
29 JANVIER 2018 PUBLIÉ DANS POLITIQUE

cooperation militaire occidentale NigerLes autorités nigériennes ne sont pas satisfaites de la coopération avec les troupes française et américaine déployées dans le pays.
C'est le ministre de la Défense qui l'assure au moment où un contingent militaire italien est attendu au Niger.
Le pays fait l'objet d'attaques armées récurrentes le long de ses frontières avec le Mali et le Nigeria.
Ecouter le correspondant dela BBC,
https://www.nigerdiaspora.net/index.php ... tale-audio

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malikos
Mulazim Awal (ملازم أول)
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Mahamadou Issoufou : «Le Niger tend la main aux djihadistes prêts à rendre les armes pour se réintégrer dans la société»
https://www.lopinion.fr/edition/interna ... dre-118362

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Re: Actualite militaire au NIGER

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Niger : L’opposition indépendante exige la suppression des bases militaires étrangères
Par Modeste Dossou Le 5 Fév 2018 à 15:36
Des rues de la capitale nigérienne prises d’assauts dimanche par des manifestants en colères. Selon les informations relayées par la Bbc, il s’agit d’un sit-in nocturne organisé à l’appel du Front de l’Opposition Indépendante (FOI) qui exige la fermeture des bases militaires étrangères dans le pays.
Pour les manifestants, les bases militaires installées dans le pays ne servent à rien d’autre que de couverture pour piller les ressources du pays.
https://beninwebtv.com/2018/02/niger-lo ... trangeres/

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Re: Actualite militaire au NIGER

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Niger mission after Niamey OK - Alfano (2)
Parliament has given green light, now they must approve-minister
(foto: ANSA)
© ANSA
+CLICK TO ENLARGE
Redazione ANSA
ROME
06 February 2018
15:55
NEWS
Rome, February 6 - Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday that an Italian military mission in Niger will not go ahead until there is a formal request from the African nation. "The (Italian) parliamentary vote was a vote of authorization," Alfano said.
"The deployment of the mission can only take place on the request of the Niger authorities and on the basis of their consent. "(When we have the green light from Niamey) we will use this authorization to conduct any action requested by the Niger government and respecting Niger sovereignty"
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politic ... 5c69c.html

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Heads of State from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali and Niger are meeting at this year’s G5 Sahel Summit in Niamey, the Nigerien capital.

While the operation of their joint regional counter terrorism force will be top of the agenda, they will also discuss other issues including regional development and the rotational presidency of the grouping, which is currently held in Niger.

Reports said 500 million U.S. Dollar budget target for the G5 Sahel force has nearly been met, but it is still not clear how this will be spent.

The force, which carried out its first operation last October and its second last month, is expected to collaborate with French and UN forces in the region to try and bring stability in the wake of instability from jihadi militants in the Sahel.

The five African leaders of the G5 met last year with French President, Emmanuel Macron
.

http://aitonline.tv/post-g5_countries_m ... rism_talks

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Seven Niger troops killed in Boko Haram attack
Niamey - At least seven Niger soldiers were killed and more than a dozen others wounded last week in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in the country's southeast, the government has said.
https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/seve ... k-20180120

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The Force Commander (FC) Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) Major General Lucky Irabor, has urged troops of Sector 4 MNJTF (Diffa) Niger Republic, to be more vigilant and alert in order to avoid any surprise from Boko Haram terrorists
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/2 ... re-vi.html

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Niger: Tuareg people living with drought and conflict
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/n ... 32135.html
Oil was found in the Kafra region, some 80 km (50 miles) from the Algerian border, he said. A Sonatrach executive will visit Niger next week to discuss expanding drilling, officials said.
https://af.reuters.com/article/africaTe ... W1R7-OZABS
Dernière modification par malikos le 13 février 2018, 22:31, modifié 1 fois.

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There are series of links to articles here on the forum, but with no further talk and assessment I judge them useless. Thus here an algerian perspectives on the military situation of northern Niger.

The Algerian interests into the region are manifold:
1) Traditionally Algeria sees all foreign (western) influences (particular non UN military missions) in Africa as rather negative, in line with most other African countries. When it come to neighbouring countries, I would say Algeria sees foreign military basis as a direct threat to its security and will very closely and carefully observe those installations.
2) Even though the Algerians respect the integrity of all is neighbouring states, there is also a close and traditional relationship to the Touarek people overall. Partially because they are Algerians as well, but also because they supported the Algerian cause during occupation. Clearly the goal is to have the Touarek at ease with no foreign troops and larger concentration of them for conventional warfare on their boarders or borders of Algeria.
3) Algeria has economical interests next to stability interests in the region of northern Niger. Algerian workers may even be deployed in the north of Niger. In a theatre where in the very same region Western drones fly over their heads soon and special commandos from foreign and aggressive countries conduct their operations.

THREAT.
A 100-million-dollar base in Agadez, is not a short-term base for limited local operations. Its will be there for decades with an impact over the whole of west and northern africa, given the investment. US forces have showed that even nuclear armed states such as Pakistan do not deter them when it comes to killing major terrorist. A political element is that even though Algerian terrorist might be in the region, they will not be hunted and killed by forces of the neighbouring country in line with their national laws, they will be hunted and killed by foreign western nations. Thus, in situations where for example suspected terrorist are about to cross the border on land to escape a drone attack, there is a chance that the attack will continue onto Algerian soil. Going further down this train of though there is even the chance that some of those terrorists are Algerian nationals.

The other threat are electronic reconnaissance missions to assess secret Algerian defence capabilities, as they were conducted by US forces in Iran for example.

Algerian military capabilities:
Close examination of available satellite images of the regions will give a grasp of permanent Algerian bases, which might harbour PERMANENT radar stations. Those bases are rare on the southern border to Niger And Mali. Those bases might be very well capable of detecting objects at medium and high altitudes, but a drone flying at 3km or lower of altitude might very well penetrate Algerian airspace undetected.
It is unlikely that in remote and difficult areas mobile radar will be deployed over longer periods of time to close those gaps in lower radar coverage and Algeria does not possess the adequate technical surveillance solutions such as AWACS or blimp-radar to observe those lower flying threats.
Algeria deployed SAM in the south and utilised SAM against drones in the past. There is has also the capable airbase of Tamanrasset in the region. It is likely that if a drone is detected closing in to the border or already crossed it that is will be shot down regardless of the nation who sent it.

Given the Algerian interest in the region, one could also imagine that directly Algerian troops enter and leave the neighbouring countries. Taken together direct confrontation with western troops is rather likely than unlikely and outcome will be on local “modus vivendi”.

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http://fr.africatime.com/video/operatio ... -de-madama

[/quote]L'armée française s'est installée au fort de Madama dans le cadre de l'opération Barkhane menée au Sahel depuis un an. Située en plein désert à seulement 150 kilomètres de la frontière libyenne, cette base militaire se construit jour après jour. Reportage[/quote]

http://fr.africatime.com/video/operatio ... -de-madama

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Re: Actualite militaire au NIGER

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On the military front, France has several hundred troops in Niger, including special forces stationed at a revamped colonial fort in Madama, near the border with Libya. In December, Italy announced plans to send up to 470 troops to Madama in order to curb people-smuggling and fight jihadists. The exact amount of military spending by the EU and individual European nations in recent years is unclear, but is likely in the hundreds of millions of euros.
With the expanding U.S. military presence in the region, the odds of such a thing occurring may be rising. Since the early 2000s, the United States has stationed special-forces operatives in Niger, and began flying drones out of the capital city of Niamey in 2013, long before Islamist gunmen killed four American Special Forces servicemen in an ambush in October 2017. The United States is also currently building a new drone base in Agadez. In addition, Washington recently received approval from Nigerien officials to begin flying armed drones to strike jihadist groups in the region—a decision that did not involve Niger’s legislature or public debate.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Rudy Atallah, who served as the Africa counterterrorism director for the secretary of defense from 2003 to 2009, told me that part of the challenge for U.S. special forces in the region is that they are limited to working directly with their Nigerien counterparts. The Nigerien military is “not seen favorably in many pockets of the country, and so it taints our guys,” Atallah told me. As a result, “our human intelligence is very, very weak in that area,” he said, posing a major challenge to executing drone strikes accurately.

Calls for more robust intelligence gathering by U.S. troops on the ground, however, may soon meet resistance in Washington. The New York Times recently reported that a draft military investigation into the ambush in October calls for the Pentagon to scale back its ground operations in the region, rather than expand them.

Mahamane Elhadj Souleymane, who represents over 90 tribes throughout the region as chief of the Kel Eweye Tuareg confederation, said he has yet to receive a straightforward explanation from either his own government or from U.S. officials for why the Americans are building a drone base on the edge of Agadez. “We just have no idea what they are actually doing,” he said. “What happens the first time the Americans make a mistake and kill civilians?

It’s a hypothetical question for which he already has an answer. “With the economic crisis and this government, people here are already so fed up,” he said. “One mistake and the jihadists will have no problem recruiting 200 people the next day.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ca/553019/
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