SENEGAL TO INCREASE TROOPS IN DARFUR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 000082 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, INR/AA, IO/PHO AND PM LONDON FOR AFRICA WATCHER PARIS FOR POL - D'ELIA E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2017 TAGS: PREL PMOPS SG SU SUBJECT: SENEGAL TO INCREASE TROOPS IN DARFUR Classified By: CDA Robert P. Jackson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) During a 12 December meeting at the Senegalese Armed Forces Headquarters, Senegalese Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Colonel Cherif Mbodj informed Embassy Dakar Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) Chief that Senegal would be increasing the size of its troop contribution for the AU Mission to Sudan (AMIS). According to COL Mbodj, Major General Abdoulaye Fall, Chief of the Defense Staff, had just instructed him to increase the size of the Senegalese troop contingent to AMIS by 300 soldiers. When asked for clarification, COL Mbodj responded affirmatively and indicated that he had started planning immediately in order to determine how to implement this force increase. He did not provide a timeline for when these new troops would be available for service in Darfur. ¶2. (C) Comment: This announcement is surprising because the current peacekeeping operations deployment tempo has severely taxed the Senegalese Armed Forces. The Senegalese Army is approximately 10,000 strong and has 12 ground force maneuver battalions. Thus far, Senegal has maintained battalion sized contributions to the UN peacekeeping missions in Cote d'Ivoire, DROC, Liberia, and to the AU mission in Sudan. These four battalions on peacekeeping duty are rotated on a six-month basis. Senegal has been able to maintain such a high proportion of its troops abroad by forming composite battalions and by, when necessary, fleshing out the manning of these composite units with soldiers from garrison and support units. Nonetheless, Senegal is already maintaining one-third of its maneuver forces deployed at a time. Adding a further 300 men, essentially another battalion, to this deployment commitment will stretch the Senegalese army to the breaking point. ¶3. (C) Contractors provided through the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance program (ACOTA) currently train and prepare each battalion for DAKAR 00000082 002 OF 002 their peacekeeping deployments. At the current optempo ACOTA conducts eight training iterations a year. This new increase will likely result in the need for ACOTA to expand its program to ten iterations per year. End comment. JACKSON