Sweden is considering contributing additional troops to the France-led Task Force Takuba in Mali. The consideration follows a request from the French government.
According to a release from Swedish armed forces headquarters, the country would contribute personnel and helicopters from the Special Forces.
The announcement comes barely three weeks after Sweden’s Minister for Defense Peter Hultqvist accompanied his French counterpart Florence Parly on a visit to Chad and Mali. Hultqvist later revealed to the press that that France had requested a contribution to Takuba.
Sweden has more than 200 military personnel already deployed to multinational missions in Mali, in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa’s Sahel region.
Lieutenant General Dennis Gyllensporre who serves as Force Commander of MINUSMA, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali noted that Sweden has contributed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability based at Camp Nobel in Timbuktu until December. According to U.N. figures, 203 soldiers, 12 staff officers and six police officers were deployed.
The Sweden is expect to move its military contingent to the large shared camp at Gao, which is also home to the only permanent base in Mali for Operation Barkhane, the France-led counter-terrorism mission that will command Task Force Takuba.
Mali is among the countries in the Sahel region battling with Islamist insurgency, despite help from regional and international partners, and the insurgency has since spread into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
