France To Deploy 10 Jets In Uganda To Protect Its Troops In Drc

[Gunship]

France is to deploy up to 10 hi-tech fighter jets in the Ugandan airspace to
protect their troops being deployed in Bunia in the (northeastern)
Democratic Republic of Congo.

Col Denis Koehl, the logistics officer for the French-led emergency
multinational interim force for Bunia on Saturday (7 June) said five Mirage
2000D Bombers and five Mirage Fox 1 fighter jets were assembled for the
operation to be commanded by a two-star general, Paul Thonier.

Koehl and French ambassador to Uganda Jean-Bernard Thiant were addressing a
press conference about the three-month Operation Artemis spearheaded by
France. "The troops have to be protected on landing and take-off," Koehl, an
airman said.

"In normal situations, we may not deploy them but put them on standby," he
added.

Military sources said the French version fighter jets can release a series
of bombs at ago, re-fuel mid-air, intercept enemy aircraft, launch missile
attacks and take pictures on the ground and relay them to the central
command in France for analysis.

Koehl said a reconnaissance mission comprising commandos entered Bunia town
to assess the situation in readiness for the deployment of the main body of
the troops.

"The speed of troop deployment is conditioned by the extremely low number of
rotations that can be effected on Bunia runway given its condition. The
deployment will undoubtedly be long. We must think in terms of several weeks
before the force can be completely deployed with all its material and combat
vehicles," the colonel said.

He said the military build-up is inevitable as the forces are susceptible to
attacks from heavily armed militia groups that are equipped with armour and
ground to air missiles.

Koehl said apart from the geographic constraints in Bunia, the airport there
could not sustain more than 10 airlifts per day and may deteriorate at each
landing and takeoff.

"Strategic aerial transport will be effected upto Entebbe airport where the
force will install a joint military support base besides the MONUC aerial
plan of action. The aerial tactical projection will be carried out in a
distance of 300km between Entebbe and Bunia," he added.

Thiant said the force is not to engage in combat with the militia but to
stabilize the chaotic situation in order to facilitate the work of the
humanitarian agencies as the condition of the population appears
catastrophic.
:suspect: Trust the French .. :p

[Buitenzorg]

While it may be true that by law French citizens must maintain a distance of 10 paces from soap and toothbrushes, and their politicians are even more cynical conniving b@stards than... well, OUR politicians, they don't expect their troops to phuque about and they seem to understand the word “harm” in the phrase “in harm’s way”.

When the first US and French (Foreign Legion) forces landed in Mogadishu, the US mandate seemed to be designed to avoid Bad Press for the Administration or the creation of soapboxes for Monseigneur J. Jackson et al. to climb on. We all know how that turned out. The Legionnaires, having listened to the OTHER briefing, very carefully killed all occupants but one of the first “technical” to give them any trouble. That survivor was then equally carefully returned to his comrades. The Legion did not have any further trouble in Mogadishu.

They still need a bath though.

[V1 Rotate]

Bloody hypocrites !

:} :} :} :}

V1 Rotate

[126,7]

Next you'll see them using Napalm and Agent Orange just so they can see those 8-10 year old "fighters" in the jungle:}

[rags]

Nevermind the hipocracy. WHO will do the ATC. We have enough aircraft not doing position reports up there, now the will not report and bombing along at Mach2. At least when the yanks operate they put the odd AWAC up for control. :confused: :confused: :confused:

By the way Bunia is just north of Goma. Very close to the airways that you 4 holers are using to Europe.:hmm:

[Gunship]

:uhoh: and the French arrive ....

The first French combat troops leading an international force
meant to stem months of tribal violence arrived in this troubled northeastern
Congolese town on Tuesday.

Armed with assault rifles, about 100 troops from the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment
climbed out of two C160 cargo planes that flew into Bunia from neighboring Uganda.
Another 50 troops will arrive later Tuesday, said spokesman Capt. Frederic Solano.

The French-led force, code-named Artemis, is being deployed under both United Nations
and European Union flags and could have up to 1,700 troops, the majority French.

More than 700 French troops have arrived in Uganda in recent days from where they
will be deployed to Bunia. The force is using Uganda's international airport at
Entebbe as a logistics base.

An advance team of several dozen French special forces have been at Bunia's airport,
four miles west of the town, since Friday. But most of those will leave once the
force is deployed, Solano said.

Bunia has been wracked by fighting between rival tribal factions battling for control
of the town, the capital of Ituri province.

On Saturday, hundreds of fighters from rival Hema and Lendu factions clashed on the
muddy streets of the war-scarred town with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades
and heavy machine guns.

Thomas Lubanga, leader of the Hema group that controls the town, the Union of
Congolese Patriots, said 38 Lendu fighters, three Hema fighters and three civilians
died in the fighting.

Last month, some 500 people were killed in more than a week of fighting between rival
factions. The violence has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Force commander French Brig. Gen. Jean-Paul Thonier arrived at Entebbe airport in
Uganda Monday. He was expected to visit Bunia later Tuesday.

The force, which will be deployed for three months, is supposed to reinforce some 750
U.N. troops from Uruguay already in Bunia.

The mandate of the U.N. troops in Congo is to protect U.N. installations and
personnel. They can only fire in self defense and have not attempted to stem the
violence.

The details of the international force's mandate are not yet clear, but it will be
authorized to shoot to kill if necessary.

Solano said the force would secure Bunia, the airport and protect aid workers and
displaced people.

It will not be deployed in areas outside the town and airport, despite the fact the
many other parts of Ituri have been wracked by violence.

The composition of the remainder of the force, which will not operate under U.N.
command nor wear the hallmark blue helmets of U.N. peacekeepers, has not yet been
confirmed. But it is expected to include troops from South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria
and Pakistan.

The war in Congo erupted in August 1998 after Rwanda and Uganda sent troops in to the
country to back Congolese rebels attempting to oust then-President Laurent Kabila.
Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sent in troops to support Kabila. The foreign troops
have all withdrawn, but rebel groups and tribal militia in eastern Congo are still
supported by Uganda and Rwanda.
:E

[V1 Rotate]

I hope someone gives all the locals some serious AIDS awareness education ! Maybe the UN should send a C130 full of condoms.

:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
V1 Rotate

[Gunship]

V1 Rotate ..

I saw myself 2 containers FULL of UN condoms. That was for a 6 months period !

I will get the stats. I want to start a CAMPFIRE thread soon re the use of the :mad: USELESS UN :mad: ....

Back to the thread :rolleyes: Sorry ...

Why suddenly do the French show such interest in Africa.
10 Fighter Jets .. C-160's ... Ship rescues with Super Puma's ..

Eischhh .. I do not have a problem with them (as I do not know them) but obviously there is something else than "easy African Night Fighters ?"

[planecrazi]

I wonder if the French will use 126.9 in the Mirage on their bombing runs??? :D

[Flying Bean]

HELLDOG - How is the situation on the ground at Bunia? Are you guys still flying in there? Before we left in May we were in there 2/3 times a week. Is MAF & Airserv doing Aid Flights?
Looks like its now really interesting. Suggest you get some missile pods for the Aztec!!:D :cool: :D

[ShenziRubani]

Yoh Boyz!
Master Gunship, the French have always been interested in Africa and involved economicaly and with their military. Except that until now, and apart from Somalia they never really got into Eastern Africa. But there is a long, constant, history of their involvement in Chad (with Jaguars and F1 having fun bombing terrorist camps in South Lybia in the 80's already), RCA, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and French bases spread across West and French-speaking Africa. Their interest in East Africa though is pretty new. I guess the Somalia intervention was due to neighboor Djibouti, but they have also been involved in Tanzania and Uganda in the recent years where they led joint-exercices with these countries armies and air forces. I think that our forces have learnt to speak better English in the past years and we think (most probably wrongly) that we could do better than it has been done recently. As for Eastern DRC, the great useless UN has again proven its real inefficiency and lack of power since the beginning of the conflict. This is not Cyprus. A bit too complicated for them.

V1 Rotate, 126.7, rags, why "Bloody hypocrites"? Because they didn't get involved in GWII? Because they always have a political/economical motive behing action. Yes, you're right, but I think it's kindda the same for every of our 1st World nations.
Guys don't worry about ATC, they have years of practice flying over African skies and have trained over and over for this kind of mission. As for the Agent Orange and the Napalm, I think that the special forces sent on the ground, are with the Gurkhas, some of the best jungle fighters around. Like the Gurkhas, we have trained in the South American jungles, but also in Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast.
And Buitenzorg you're very right Sir, our briefings are a bit different, and bad press in France is more about sex scandals than having too much colateral damage or kills.

The African skies are going to be exciting suddenly

[BAKELA]

The Frogs seems to be quite serious about this one! When last was there "aggressive" deployment of combat aircraft on the African continent by a superpower? :E When the Pommies fought for Suez or when Belgium (where's that guy who shouts about apartheid?:*) mucked about with Mirage 5's in the Congo (thereafter Zaire and now the DRC and soon to be the...?) or when the Portuguese flew their Fiat 91's in Angola and Mozambique? What amazes me is that the Frogs bring in Mirage F(ox?) 1 fighters and C160's! Both types were deemed to be 'useless' :suspect: by the SAAF years ago. Maybe the 'new' SA government did an 'affirmative action' :{ trick on the SAAF in the early part of the new democracy and decided to replace all "apartheid aircraft" with new types - that is until they ran out of ideas when it came to the Alo III (DOWN GUNS!!!;) ), the C130 and a couple of others! Makes sense if one works out how many of the present SAAF types saw action pre new government.

[Gunship]

French fighter jets flew low over the powerkeg town of Bunia in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday, as a international rapid reaction force took shape on the ground, an AFP journalist reported.

Also on Wednesday, United Nations security council ambassadors on an official visit to Kinshasa described the unrest in northeast DRC as "unacceptable" and warned that war criminals would be brought to book.

The warplanes overflying Bunia, Mirage 2000 ground attack jets, are providing close air support for operation Artemis, a 1 500-strong French-led military mission backed by the UN and European Union and aimed at protecting civilians and UN personnel in the town, where inter-ethnic clashes have claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks.

The planes are flying sorties from bases in Libreville in Gabon and Ndjamena in Chad and can be refuelled in mid-air.

"The planes are equipped with bombs, rockets and guns," explained Colonel Daniel Vollot, the Bunia commander of a separate UN mission in DRC, called Monuc.

Potential targets can be "lit up" by ground troops.

"They have lots of possibilities. I hope we won't have to use these weapons, they are of course a deterrent. If the population sees the effect of the weapons these planes have it would be very interesting," said Vollot.

Under insistence from Paris, the security council has authorised the troops serving in Artemis to use lethal force if necessary to protect lives in Bunia.

The leader of the UN delegation touring the Great Lakes region, French ambassador Jean-Marc De la Sabliere said shortly after arriving in Kinshasa: "The situation in Ituri is unacceptable and poses a threat to the whole peace process" in the DRC, where war broke out in 1998.

Faction leaders who authorised atrocities in Ituri, where about 50 000 people have been killed since 1999, "know that they must take us seriously and they could be facing an international tribunal," one envoy said.

About 200 Artemis troops, mainly French soldiers, had arrived in Bunia as of Wednesday, and some of them began to take up strategic positions around the town, as others beefed up perimieter security at the town's airport, mission spokesperson Colonel Gerard Dubois said.

Asked what the troops would do if fighting broke out again, Dubois said, "If what happened on Saturday happens again, the force will not stay at the airport, that's clear."

Some 40 people were reportedly killed Saturday when fighters of an ethnic faction tried to take control of Bunia.

The 100 or so advance troops of Artemis then at the airport did not intervene.

Bubois went on to stress that his troops would not be leaving the confines of Bunia town and its airport, even if fighting was reported in other parts of Ituri region.

"The mandate of the force is very clear - Bunia and the airport - and the force has been scaled for this mission," he said.

"The responsibility for the violence or security is, I would say, shared by all the actors in the conflict. I remind you that all these countries, the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, support the deployment of this force," he said.

Rwanda and Uganda also support a variety of DRC rebel groups.

Also Wednesday, leaders of half a dozen of Ituri's armed groups were due to meet in Bunia under the auspices of Monuc to try to move forward on moribund agreements to disarm and demobilise their fighters.

[ehwatezedoing]

BAKELA speaking about an agressive deployment, the French did a pretty good job with their fighters in Chad, ask Kadhafi.
And who need to send a +200 millions $ brend new military jets (apart americans) in front of:
Not ennemies jet fighters but AK47´s or eventually, old Sam´s.

BTW, 2 or 3 weeks ago I saw in Montreal (cymx) transiting for Mapple Flag exercise:
4 Mirages 2000
8 Mirages F1
Couple of C-130/C-135-F
And they were all speaking English RTO in civilian freq... in quebec.

Do I have to worry by this invasion :p

[rags]

From guns press release
""The mandate of the force is very clear - Bunia and the airport - and the force has been scaled for this mission," he said."

Same of us are looking at the larger picture than the frog lover above. 8 jets to protect a town and airport. If what happens on Saturday happens again...... Bul:mad: Are they going to move into the areas arround where all the genocide is happening. :confused: :confused: :confused: Lets wait and see but I think they will sit on the airport and thats that.

:yuk: :yuk: :yuk: :yuk:

[Gunship]

Good point RAGS.

They will cover their own a:mad:es and that is that.

The French / Americans and to lesser agree the Brits are "there" but do not want to get envolved.

The Brits was an exception in SL.

The UN - wel they are even MORE useless .. they will come with enquiries AFTER the genocide.

Liberia border is 50 Nm from where I sit - here are 17 000 useless oxygen thieves from the UN here. Today a minimum of 300 people where killed in Monrovia alone.

What do they do - send an inspection team. All it is wait till things have cooled down and with great bravado (On CNN) they will "move in" and make peace ... lot a bull:mad:t !

[currawong]

I think I speak for most of us -

"the French have always been there when they needed us"

This is just a PR exercise. The equipment is photo op material.

Troopies in the field are not great photo ops. Fast movers are - even when parked.

Having opposed involvement in Iraq, they are now desparately trying to be seen to be making the world a better place.

That this coincides with their neo-colonialist aims in Africa is good management.

If they are anything like the Brits they will not mind stepping on a few colonials to achieve their aims. Southern folks will have recent memory of this.

If they do a good job, I will withdraw everything I have said. What are the odds?

[Gunship]

Saw some BBC footage ..

BBC in a villiage next moment gun - fights ... frightened local pop.
Then a Mirage flies overhead and great cheers from local pop ... the French our saviours .. then he flies away (after tkaing pics ?)

Bad news ... all around ! :\

[ShenziRubani]

Currawong, "neo-colonialism aims"!!!!! Sorry but you missed you history classes for the period 1892-1967???

[currawong]

Please enlighten us ShenziRubani.

If I have got the wrong idea I would like to be corrected.

If, in my ignorance I have caused offence, I would like to apologise.

Just for the record - "neocolonialism n. political control by an out side power of a country that is in theory independent, esp. through the domination of its economy."(Collins Concise Dictionary)

Is there any doubt that France is at least trying to exert influence in the area, most probably with the aim of securing some economic advantage in the future?

Or maybe they are there just there because they are good blokes.

[rags]

Guns

Check bbcnews.com There is a Doctor from MSF doing a daily newsletter from Liberia. The French did their evacuation and disapeared with the morning mist. I saw the same thing in Brazza a number of years ago


All to look good on CNN.

BUT

Give credit to the devil that needs it

If I recall correctly it was the French (maybe Belgians) that stopped the genocide in Ruanda/Burundi a couple of years ago

[ShenziRubani]

Currawong, sorry I didn't express myself correctly. I didn't challenge your comments about the French trying to get more involved in this part of Africa, and have "colonial" interests: I meant that it is not new, it goes back to 1892 and it has never stopped. Political independance was effectively given but it has always been, alike Britain in their ex-colonies, a facade and politically, France has always tried to stay involved and influence their ex-babies.
As for the intervention in RDC, I don't believe that it has anything to do with the War in Irak, they have tried to interfere and intervene all the time.It is only new that they have the balls to go into RDC which was until here more like protected hunting ground for SA, via Mbeki's mate Mugabe.
Currawong, have you been to Africa, have you worked in places like RDC, Brazza, Rwanda, East Africa. It is nice and kind to see you supporting the "Southern folks", but it is really different from Oz here, can't be compared in any way, especially historically.

Raggs, I agree with you, but once again, the evacuation in Liberia, in brazza, even in Ivory Coast when they went in, before sending proper troops, were only "evac ops". Not there to sort out the **** or help the locals. Same goes for the US ships which are at sea in Liberia. Not there to do anything for the country, just get their citizens out and protect the embassy. So I don't see anything wrong in that. After what happen to the French in Kolwezi, I don't think they'll take it lightely when they have people in a hot place.

As for the end of the genocide in Rwanda, in June '99, well, CNN and the politically-correct Western world would like to say that the French troops stopped it, but the aim of "Operation Turquoise" was less glorious. We had to make a protective line between the advance of the FPR (who did really stopped the genocide in Rwanda) in order to get the members of the old regime, and their Interamwe forces out of the country and safe. The French socialist regime of the time didn't want any of those guys to name their involvement in the training and support of the genocidors. I was an officer in the French Air Force at the time.

[currawong]

Thanks, ShenziRubani, for taking the time to keep us informed.

Your efforts are appreciated! :ok:

[rags]

ShenziRubani

In any heated debate one needs a person to say "stop lets get back on track" :ok:

Your last post was one like that.

I would like to say that the French Airforce are doing a great job on 126.9. Heard them a lot broadcasting holding over Bunia. That was one of my big worries.

:ok: :ok: :ok:

[Gunship]

Lo N4,

Yes every f:mad:n a55:mad:le got one ...

Really makes me mad but worse is, the Special Court at a cost of $80m !!!

2 out of the 7 on trail "died" and Sanko the MAN Man to be trailed are being send to Senegal for treatment ($600k) ..

Oh my ... did not want to start my day like this but just saw a Nigerian selling his troops meat to a Lebanese businessman.

Eischhh Africa and the UN .. :mad:

[BAKELA]

Kunjani Guns,

Yep, Africa and the UN...business is business...and for Africa...business as usual.:ooh:

[Cardinal Puff]

Heard that four aircraft took hits from ground fire in the last couple of weeks around Bunia. Have they been playing with those naughty boys from next door again, then?

Seriously though, did they get hit while overflying the town and if so, why the hell did they do that?

[AdamCG]

PRETORIA 23 June 2003 Sapa

SAAF PERSONNEL LEAVING FOR DRCONGO

Two South African Air Force Oryx helicopters and 22 staff
members, comprising helicopter pilots and support crew, will leave
for the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday morning, an SANDF
spokesman said on Monday.

Colonel John Rolt said the helicopters and staff would become
part of the French-led multinational emergency force in the Bunia
region in the eastern DRC.

Four of the staff would be based in Bunia itself, while the
helicopters and the rest of the staff would be based at Entebbe in
Uganda. Entebbe was the logistical base for the operation, said
Rolt.

The helicopters would undertake "normal flight operations" and
would not be used for fighting, he said.

The deployment was in addition to forces South Africa had
already promised to deploy as part of the United Nations effort in
Congo.

This commitment included an infantry battalion group of 950, a
support group of 100, an engineers company of 175, a ferry unit of
15, and a well-drilling unit of 12.

The total cost of the scheduled deployment was about R819
million.

The multinational emergency force was deployed in response to
ethnic clashes which have claimed hundreds of lives in the Bunia
region in recent weeks.