[AlAhram] French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday warned troops stationed in Africa's Sahel region... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
that they should "prepare for a long war" against Islamist bully boys. He also promised Chad, where French troops have been stationed since 2014 under Operation Barkhane, his nation's financial support.
"Our country must continue to make clear and ambitious budgetary decisions in support of our armies," Cazeneuve said on his first overseas visit as prime minister.
The Barkhane forces' mission is to target Islamist bully boy groups that are active in the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert. The operation was launched after French military interventions in Mali and Chad.
"We must prepare for a long war in an environment that has undergone dramatic shifts," Cazeneuve said.
The French military is currently battling Islamist bully boy in two regions -- in the Middle East against the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) bully boys, and in the Sahel where it has deployed 4,000 soldiers as part of the Barkhane force.
Operation Barkhane covers five nations: Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
and Chad.
Cazeneuve hailed troops fighting on fronts "thousands of kilometres away from their homes".
"You risk your lives to save others'," he said.
Four French troops have been killed in Mali this year. Barkhane forces are working alongside Malian troops in the search for Sophie Petronin, a French aid worker who was kidnapped last weekend.
The prime minister also pledged La Belle France's help for poverty-stricken Chad.
"La Belle France will always help Chad surmount its difficulties," said Cazeneuve after a meeting with President Idriss Deby.
Like its neighbour, oil giant Nigeria, Chad has been undergoing a severe financial crisis as a result of a several months-long slump in the price of crude.