EUtM in Mali – Mission description

Under the responsibility of the Council and of the High representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Political and Security Committee (PSC) shall exercise the political control and strategic direction of the EU military mission. The PSC will, at regular intervals, receive reports from the chairman of the EU Military Committee (EUMC) regarding the conduct of the EU military mission, and will report to the Council.

Generally speaking, the situation increases the threat to the safety of EU citizens in the Sahel (hostage-taking, attacks) as well as in Europe, notably through the influence of extremists and terrorists networks over the diasporas, training, and logistical support from Al-Qaida affiliates in the north of Mali.

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It also threatens the EU’s strategic interests, including the security of energy supply and the fight against human and drugs trafficking. European intelligence agencies have already crossed attempted attacks on the European territory.

In order to overcome these threats and address these challenges, the Malian authorities have requested the EU’s support. The EU’s strategic objective, as expressed in its Strategy for Security and Development in the Sahel (see above), remains the promotion of stability, connecting security, development and governance through the integrated and coordinated use of all relevant EU instruments in order to address the root causes of insecurity, under-development and conflicts at local, national and regional levels.

So a CSDP mission is a very significant part of this EU global approach to restore the state’s authority throughout Mali and bring a durable solution to the current crisis.²³

4.2. Military direction

Brigadier General Bruno Guibert²⁴ from France has been appointed as EUtM Mali Mission Commander. The EU Military Committee will monitor the proper execution of the EU military mission conducted under the responsibility of the Mission Commander. The chairman of the EUMC will act as the primary point of contact with the Mission Commander.²⁵

EUtM Mali firstly was commanded by French General François Lecointre and from the first moment already will include a staff of around 500 (200 trainers from France, the UK, Ireland and 19 other countries²⁶ and has an initial brief to train 2,000 Malians, so to create four new battalions capable of defending the West African country) as I have already mentioned it. The headquarters is in Bamako, while training is to take place in Koulikoro. An initial group of 70 troops arrived in Mali, on 8 February, and military instructors will be deployed by the end of March. The British and Irish troops

23 EUtM in Mali: Mission backround http://www.eutmmali.eu/?page_id=222 (Downloaded:

on 14^th october 2013.)

24 See more at http://eeas.europa.eu/csdp/documents/pdf/cv_bruno_guibert_en.pdf (Downloaded: on 4^th october 2013.)

25 EEAS HoME http://www.eeas.europa.eu/csdp/missions-and-operations/eutm-mali/

mission-description/index_en.htm (Downloaded: on 4^th october 2013.)

26 Sizes per countries: „France 207, Germany 71, Spain 54, UK 40, Czech republic 34, Belgium 25, Poland 20, Italy 19, Sweden 14, Finland 12, Hungary 10, Ireland 8, Austria 7, Greece 4, Bulgaria 4, Latvia 2, Slovénia 4, Estonia 2, Lithuania 2, Portugal 1, romania 1 et Luxembourg 1.” http://www.eutmmali.eu/?p=211 (Downloaded: on 17^th october 2013.)

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are largely carrying out infantry training; the Greeks handle intelligence classes; and Germany has built a field hospital at the training camp at Koulikoro, about 60km north of Bamako. In April 2013 the first specialist trainers arrived in Mali.

The multinational force was born. But who is responsible for what? A few examples: the first of them was the Hungarian team, numbering 6 in total.

They are in charge of teaching the elite shooters. They arrived in Bamako along with 4 Greek intelligence trainers. 15 Spanish soldiers will be responsible for instructing of the commando units of the Waraba battalion. The Spanish platoon of the force protection. The contingent of 10 Polish trainers and all of their material. These soldiers will be in charge of the logistics training. 17 German trainers, namely, sapper specialists. They were accompanied by 2 Latvian Commanding officers who will be reinforcing the Command team at Koulikoro camp.²⁷

The main and specific tasks during the training are including on command and control, logistics and human resources as well as on international humanitarian law, the protection of civilians and human rights. The mission will not be involved in combat operations.

The training Mission long term aims to build cohesion among the soldiers who are of different ages and ranks and do not know each other as they have been hand-picked for the course from across the country by the Malian armed forces. Moreover the soldiers are ethnically mixed – both pale and dark-skinned – but the „Malian authorities have not given details of how they were selected”.²⁸ Amnesty International and Human rights Watch say that Malian soldiers have been guilty of human rights crimes against civilians they suspect of having hidden rebels. The EUtM says²⁹ it has asked civil society groups to come forward with names of any soldiers suspected of abuses.

The EU has indeed been concerned by the deteriorating political, security, humanitarian and human rights situation in the Sahel region since early 2000.

It was earlier than the Libyan crisis, but was further aggraveted by its consequences. Since the beginning of the crisis in Mali, the Council has repeated the EU’s purposes to accelerate and enhance the implementation of this Strategy in order to help tackle the regional consequences of this crisis.

It was a useful tool to enhance the coherence of the EU approach to the crisis, with a particular focus on Mauritania, Niger and Mali. The EU has

27 More details: http://www.eutmmali.eu/?m=201304 Arrival of the specialist trainers on 15^th April 2013. (Downloaded: on 14^th october 2013.)

28 Alex Duval Smith’s article, BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22391857 (Downloaded: on 14^th october 2013.)

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allocated over € 660 million to the region under the 10th European Development Fund (2007-2013).³⁰ In the framework of its Sahel strategy, the EU has further mobilised additional financial resources for development and security related projects worth € 167 million along the four lines of action of the strategy:

• Development, good governance and internal conflict resolution;

• Political and diplomatic action;

• Security and the rule of law; and

• countering violent extremism and radicalisation (this latter aspect is the main reason for the Mission).

Since fighting emerged in early 2012 in northern Mali, groups of various affiliations – most of them with well documented links to Al-Qaida – are expanding their influence and establishing safe havens for terrorist and criminal activities. „Violence has forced 436,000 Malians to flee their homes and further aggravated the food crisis. More than 18 million people are at risk of hunger throughout the Sahel region. In this context, the European Commission committed € 172 million under its humanitarian aid budget and launched an international partnership for resilience in the Sahel region (Global Alliance for resilience initiative, AGIr).”³¹

the EU-led Global Alliance for resilience Initiative was officially launched on 6 December 2012 in ouagadougou³² and is shaping up to be a major long term strategy for building resilience in the fragile Sahel region.³³

In response to the chronic food insecurity in the Sahel the Alliance’s objective is to promote greater resilience by creating synergies between the emergency response and long-term development strategies. In the Sahel region is Mali and the total number of Malian refugees in the surrounding countries is estimated to be 146,059 on 17th January, 2013.34 But the number has increased already in May (see below):

30 Factsheet: The EU and the Sahel http://www.eeas.europa.eu/csdp/documents/pdf/132802.

pdf (Downloaded: on 8^th october 2013.)

31 Factsheet the EU and the Sahel, more details: http://www.eeas.europa.eu/csdp/documents/

pdf/132802.pdf (Downloaded: on 8^th october 2013.)

32 ouagadougou is the capital city of Burkina Faso.

33 SAHEL-AGIr: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/policies/resilience/agir_en.htm (Downloaded:

on 8^th october 2013.)

34 The MAP (facts) can be found: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/images/photos/aid/20130122_

mali_situationmap.jpg (Downloaded: on 10^th october 2013.)

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Malian refugees³⁵