Was this a win or a loss for the French? Militarily they crushed the Jihadists and kept them in check but they got kicked out in the end and it didn't even matter.
>>62886570Serval was a success, it stopped the jihadists from toppling the Malian gouvernement and contained them to the sahel's three border region, and proved the french military capability quickly deploy troops in its (former) sphere of influence.Barkhane on the other hand was the french equivalent to the desastrous afghan pull out and failed attempt at nation building. They were dealing on one hand with a corrupt and incompetent Malian gouv that was more preoccupied with ethnic infighting, and on the other the Touareg rebels in the north plus all the jihadists group that operated in the northern desert. The counter insurgency was a complete failure, and billions in European funding and military aid were lost when the junta ran to Wagner to kill ethnic minorities for them when the french refused to do so.In the end, it's a a loss, we lost international standing and influence in Africa
>>62886570weird chin strap.
>>62888547It was overall useless since the very beginning, Africa being what it is.
>>62886570It was one of those instances where the battle was won but the war was politically lost due to fundamental weakness from the central goverment to keep their own military in checkNow the country is 1/3 in the hands of rebels with the jihadist having their own de facto goverment from Mali to Nigeria and I see the situation only getting worse from here
>>62888894Kinda true.But France until recently had huge control and heavy economical interest in the region (We print and control the currency of a lot of former France colonies)One of the commonly accepted reason for the Malian intervention was the risk of jihadist spill over in the neighboring Niger which provide vital Uranium ore for the French industry and nuclear deterrence.The Russians took advantage of the military failure of Barkhane and played up the anti french sentiment, equating the french intervention (which was at the request of the Malian themselves) to neocolonialism / military occupation and mineral material exploitation. Only for the Russian to offer their own military assistance against mineral rights, which of course resulted in a massacre.One of the most important failure of the operation was preventing the coup d'état by the Russian friendly military junta which has been ruling since.
Also OP Serval was super kino with light armored rush, successful airmobile and airdropped operation to capture enemy controlled airfield
>>62889243This is me when I play Warno.
>>62886570No idea but it was kino af, the MirageF1 pilots had the time of their life.>>>/wsg/5737714
