Royal Canadian Air Force headed to mission in Africa ‘very soon’: top general

[Colin Parkinson]

Had the CPC managed to buy the Russian Mistrals, we would be offering them up as our contribution, perfect world, sit off some hot spot and let someone else go ashore.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Just a small problem, Colin: All the current UN peacekeeping trouble spots in Africa, be it South Sudan, Mali, central African Republic or Burundi, are all landlocked countries. Amphibious ships are pretty useless for those.

 

[daftandbarmy]

My hand is up for Kenya.

At least Adventure Training would be easy: climb Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya

 

[a_majoor]

This seems odd.  Not sure how you would do it.  Not even sure that the military is the best tool for "de-militarization of child soldiers".https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/09/13/canada-pushes-back-decision-on-un-peace-mission.html

Strictly speaking DDR is the sort of mission where CIMIC and PSYOPS capabilities are needed, but (as noted) mostly to leverage the Host Nation, OGD and NGO resources to make these things happen. If there is insufficient will or resources in the host nation, then no amount of military force or capabilities will successfully enable DDR. (Look at Columbia, where the preconditions for a DDR were derailed by the population voting down a ceasefire with FARC because they wanted vengeance).

Reading the commentary of the various talking heads about how and where *we* should do *peacekeeping* is a bit like receiving messages from some sort of parallel universe, where rules and conditions are obviously very different......

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Just a small problem, Colin: All the current UN peacekeeping trouble spots in Africa, be it South Sudan, Mali, central African Republic or Burundi, are all landlocked countries. Amphibious ships are pretty useless for those.

Have faith Africa is good at growing trouble spots and it may not be a full on UN mission either.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Have faith Africa is good at growing trouble spots and it may not be a full on UN mission either.

Ah, the eternal optimist ...

 

[Jarnhamar]

"de-militarization of child soldiers". Could be  good opportunity for adults to pretend to be "child soldiers" and maybe get a free trip to Canada and hooked up with social assistance.

Opening bid, 30'000 "children" in need of saving?  ;D

 

[Rifleman62]

Canadian "Dreamers". [

 

[medicineman]

Canadian "Dreamers". [

The word I was thinking of did indeed start with "d" and end in "s" but had "umbasse"  in between...

MM

 

[MarkOttawa]

Sure doesn't look like there will be any big contribution of Canadian Army troop to UN peace operations in Africa:

Statement by Ambassador Marc-Andre Blanchard permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations - To the Security Council on Strategic Force Generation

New York, 05 October 2017

Mr. President,

I would like to thank France and the United Kingdom for convening this timely meeting on strategic force generation and for inviting Canada to brief on the upcoming Vancouver Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial.

Canada is convinced that when properly mandated, resourced, and supported, peacekeeping remains one of the most flexible and effective tools available to the international community in responding to crises.

But the nature of conflict is evolving, the operational tempo of peacekeeping is increasing, and the scale and complexity of peacekeeping operations is growing.

We have no choice but to anticipate, adapt and respond to the challenges.

This requires reforming our collective institutions, enhancing operational effectiveness, and making a sustained and collective effort to address capability gaps.

However, addressing capability gaps requires more than just supplying boots on the ground [emphasis added]. It is about providing troops with the right training, capabilities, and equipment, and doing it in a timely fashion.

Strategic force generation is fundamental to this effort, and it is an area where we need to do our work together – Member States and the UN Secretariat – differently and better.

Since 2014, a high-level series of conferences have helped to bridge the gap between the operational needs of UN peacekeeping and the tremendous capabilities that Member States have to offer.

From New York, to London, to Paris – not only have we seen an unprecedented number of pledges to UN peacekeeping, but also a move by Member States and the UN to introduce qualitative considerations into the discussion on force generation.

These annual events are now a key part of the institution of UN peacekeeping, complementing the work of this body, as well as the Special Committee on Peacekeeping, or C34. UN peacekeeping has a renewed sense of purpose with the reforms proposed by the Secretary-General.

With these considerations in mind, Canada volunteered to host the 2017 UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial...

Discussions in Vancouver will accordingly highlight the importance of integrated approaches to preventing violent conflict. Ministers will advance these objectives through panel sessions on the following themes.

First, participants will close capability gaps in UN peacekeeping by announcing new pledges and taking stock of pledges already in place. In particular, these include strengthening capabilities related to gender, police peacekeepers, as well as to peacekeeping in a francophone environment.

Second, we will identify concrete ways to strengthen partnerships on training and capacity building between the UN, troops, police, and other actors. We all have a common purpose in making UN peacekeeping operations more effective, and we have complementary skills and experiences to offer.

It is time that troop and police contributors, along with the UN Secretariat, work closer together before deployments to ensure that all of our women and men in the field have the training they need, and are able to operate as one.

Third, we will examine how we can better protect those at risk, by ensuring our strategies align with the realities on the ground. This includes examining what concrete measures can be taken to better address sexual exploitation and abuse, and prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

Fourth, we will encourage greater coherence in early warning and rapid deployment, by identifying innovative approaches, capacities and technologies to improve early warning, rapid analysis and planning capabilities. We will also look at ways to shorten new mission start-up times and ensure that we have filled the UN’s rapid deployment requirements for 2018...
http://www.international.gc.ca/prmny-mponu/statements-declarations/2017/10/05.aspx?lang=eng

Blah, blah, blather.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Kirkhill]

Might one now assume that, given this: "In particular, these include strengthening capabilities related to gender, police peacekeepers, as well as to peacekeeping in a francophone environment."  the Government of the Day will be funding an additional 3000 positions for the GRC to sustain a new Field Force capable of sustaining 600 female, francophone police officers on foreign service?

 

[MarkOttawa]

One wonders how many real francophones there are in Sahel.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Good2Golf]

Sure doesn't look like there will be any big contribution of Canadian Army troop to UN peace operations in Africa:
Blah, blah, blather.

Mark
Ottawa

Interesting that even in the world of Wikipedia, and its entry for Peacekeeping, Canada is only mentioned once, for contributed troop levels in 2014...

Perhaps Canada is not as awesome as it thinks it is?

 

[MarkOttawa]

Good2Golf:

Perhaps Canada is not as awesome as it thinks it is?

If only Canadians could both recognize and face reality; instead chattering classes and pols blather on about Canadian "leadership" all over the place and in all sorts of matters:

The Mandela Memorial Ceremony and Canada: “…a little people, a silly people…”

At least we are not “…greedy, barbarous, and cruel…”...
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/mark-collins-the-mandela-memorial-ceremony-and-canada-a-little-people-a-silly-people/

Except many people now think to our indigenous peoples...?

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Good2Golf]

Canada is right up there on the global rankings when it comes to self-adulation. :nod:

 

[medicineman]

Canada is right up there on the global rankings when it comes to self-adulation. :nod:

And pretty, albeit pretty useless, leaders.

MM

 

[FSTO]

Nothing ticks me off more than listening to people who have never been on a Peacekeeping Mission wax on about how great we are.

"Canada's Back!" has to be the most vacuous, meaningless, empty, valueless, worthless, useless, pyrrhic, nugatory, futile, fruitless, profitless and pointless statement that has come from the government of Canada since 1968. We rode on the coattails of our warriors of the World Wars, Korea and the early Cold War. But since Unification we have become a totally useless twit when it comes to international influence. Honest broker my ass. Nobody takes us seriously at all.

 

[tomahawk6]

Maybe the CF could help us out in Niger ? :goblin:

 

[medicineman]

Maybe they government should pay some of us here ad infinitum to launch a Royal Commission about Canadian Peacekeeping - The Myth; Where We Should Go; How Cool Do We Need To Look While There (ie - live vs blank ammo, ratios of candies/toothbrushes to bullets (live or inert), gender bias, etc); ROE Beyond Handshaking or Tea and Toast With Local Bad People; Potential of Being Over Run and Potential Fall Out If Body Bags Return Home (and What Spin To Put On That...Not To Mention Which Flag To Cover The Coffins With); I could go on thinking of things to report on...much like the average Royal Commission  :evil:.  I'd say many of us would be able to quit our present jobs and have a tidy bit o'cash set aside after.

Anyone interested?

MM

 

[MarkOttawa]

tomahawk6:

Maybe the CF could help us out in Niger ?

Actually already there:

Ammunition procurement tender sheds light on secretive Canadian operation in Africa

A federal government public tender to purchase ammunition for the Canadian military is shedding more light on one Canada’s most secretive counter-terrorism international assistance programs.

The tender notice posted on the government’s Byandsell.gc.ca website is for 1.2 million cartridges for “AK-47 type weapons.”

The AK-47, which stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947 in Russian, is one of the world’s most mass-produced and iconic assault rifles.

Extremely rugged and simple to use, the AK-47 and its more modernized variants are used by dozens of militaries, militias, guerilla groups, narcotrafficers  and terrorists around the world.

But it’s not part of the day-to-day arsenal of Canadian Armed Forces.

So why would the Canadian military need 1.2 million rounds, enough to start a small war [really?]?

Operation Naberius

The ammunition is for a little-known training and capacity building program run by the Canadian military in the West African nation of Niger under the codename Operation Naberius, said Capt. Vincent Bouchard, a spokesman for Canadian Joint Operations Command Headquarters...

http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/08/03/ammunition-procurement-tender-sheds-light-on-secretive-canadian-operation-in-africa/

So not that secretive:

Operation Naberius
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Operation+Naberius&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=QKSEWen-FYmijwTq45XQCw

Mark
Ottawa