Defence
Factsheet
Deployments in Africa: Chronology of Events
Coalition military activity is summarised below, with links to more extensive briefings where available.
British military personnel are engaged in a number of activities in Africa, including international peace support operations, such as those undertaken by the United Nations or the European Union, as well as conflict resolution and management. Furthermore, UK Armed Forces are ready to support the African Union in the management of its own operations. Our engagement, both in the immediate business of helping to resolve conflict in Africa, and the longer term project to build self-sustained African peace support capacity, demonstrate the UK Armed Forces' determination to play a role as a 'force for good' in the interests of international peace and security.
| 29 Feb 08 | Armed Forces Minister, Bob Ainsworth, visited Sierra Leone this week where he saw first hand the progress that has been made by the UK-led International Military Advisory and Training Team (IMATT) in assisting the transformation of the country's armed forces. |
| 26 Feb 08 | Soldiers working as part of the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT) in The Gambia, who are providing training for Gambian troops set to deploy to Darfur, are making good progress. |
| 18 Feb 08 | Soldiers and policemen from The Royal Gibraltar Regiment are currently in Africa training 500 Gambian troops who are about to join the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, Sudan. |
| 4 Feb 08 | In Ghana untreated hernias often lead to death. But a team of Royal Navy Nurses have been passing on their skills and medical knowledge in an attempt to combat the mortality rate of an ailment that is easily treated in the UK. |
| 7 Dec 07 | Merlin helicopters from the RAF Benson-based 28 Squadron have been put to the test in the blazing heat of the Kenyan rift valley, pushed to their limits for Exercise Grand Prix 2007. |
| 20 Jul 07 | The Firmin Sword of Peace has been jointly presented to the British Army and the Kenyan Armed Forces for their work in setting up and developing one of the world's leading landmine awareness centres. |
| 8 Jun 07 | A team of British Army medics supported by engineers and specialist drivers are helping to improve the lives of villagers living in some of the most remote areas of Kenya. |
| 11 May 07 | Personnel from the Kenyan and Rwandan Armed Forces have been getting the benefit of some good old British military training after two officers from RAF Halton travelled to Kenya to deliver a management training course, 'RAF-style'. |
| 11 Apr 07 | A team of sailors from HMS Collingwood took on soldiers from the Royal Highland Fusiliers in a challenge with a difference which took place in South Africa recently. |
| 9 Mar 07 | 32 Officer Cadets and Staff of the Southampton University Officer Training Corps (SUOTC) have just finished working on exercise Gambian Sapper where they rebuilt a dilapidated classroom block at the Soma Lower School in The Gambia. |
| 6 Feb 07 | The expeditionary Joint Force Headquarters, JFHQ, conducted a challenging deployment to Mozambique called Exercise XENON MERCURY in late January 2007. |
| 22 Dec 06 | At the end of November 2006, 130 bikers from around the world tackled Enduro Africa 2006 - 14 days of dusty and demanding riding through 2,500 miles (over 4,000 km) of South Africa's most rugged and isolated terrain to raise money for charity. Among them was Chief Technician Max Wilson from RAF Wittering's Station Operations Centre. |
| 1 Dec 06 | Army cameraman Kevin Capon has won a prestigious award in the tri-Service Defence Video Competition for his two-part news documentary on an international mine action project in Africa. |
| 21 Nov 06 | Being a ship's chaplain these days can be a challenging job. Not just there for spiritual and pastoral guidance Royal Navy chaplains undertake a wide variety of tasks, from the traditional chaplain's role, to providing advice on education and resettlement, and even to being asked what the winning lottery numbers are going to be. |
| 10 Nov 06 | The last of our special features from Exercise Green Eagle in Sierra Leone looks at some of the CIMIC (Civilian and Military Cooperation) projects being undertaken by UK forces personnel based within the Task Group. |
| 9 Nov 06 | Between 1991 and 2001 Sierra Leone was riven by conflict. Over the last five years the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces have been transformed with the assistance of the UK-led International Military Advisory and Training Team. |
| 9 Nov 06 | After joining the Army aged 17, then becoming an MOD civil servant, Geoff O' Flanagan used his spare time to make a difference. Three years ago he set up a charity to help two desperately poor orphanages in Kenya. |
| 8 Nov 06 | Off the coast of Sierra Leone in West Africa, HMS Ocean has been adding a new dimension to the concept of amphibious operations during Exercise Green Eagle. |
| 7 Nov 06 | The second of our special features from Exercise Green Eagle in Sierra Leone, looks at the training value of the exercise and the wider benefits to maritime security in the region. |
| 6 Nov 06 | Part One of our series of special features from Exercise Green Eagle in Sierra Leone, looks at the planning behind the Royal Navy's largest amphibious deployment for several years. |
| 23 Oct 06 | Civil war has killed 200,000 and displaced millions in the Darfur region of Sudan. The African Union (AU) mission in Sudan aims to restore confidence among the people of Darfur, provide a degree of security, and assist with the delivery of humanitarian aid. |
| 19 Oct 06 | A team of Royal Engineers are deploying to Ghana to give villagers desperately needed clean drinking water in order to prevent blindness caused by water borne bacteria. |
| 6 Oct 06 | The Royal Navy has seized more than two tonnes of cocaine during a major drugs haul off the coast of West Africa. |
| 23 Aug 06 | 'Project Albert', the registered charity based at RAF Lyneham, continues to help the underprivileged people of Kenya by purely practical means. |
| 2 Aug 06 | Should you ever find yourself on safari in Kenya, you may be comforted to know that the toilets you are using might just have been designed by Army Engineers from Chilwell, near Nottingham. |
| 12 Jul 06 | 70 soldiers from the South Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) joined forces with 64 soldiers from the North Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to complete an eight week humanitarian demining course at the British/Kenyan International Mine Action Training Centre in Kenya. The former enemies will return home as one team - a Joint Integrated Unit. |
| 27 Jun 06 | Players from the RAF Leuchars Nomads Rugby Club have been bringing toys and laughter to a children's hospital during their recent tour of South Africa. |
| 19 Jun 06 | An appeal for football shirts to send out to some of the poorest parts of Africa has seen a tremendous response from both the Royal Air Force and Football Clubs alike. |
| 5 Jun 06 | HMS Chatham has been visiting Nigeria as part of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Nigerian Navy. |
| 19 Apr 06 | A team of RAF footballers have been bringing joy to a group of disadvantaged youngsters at a South African orphanage. |
| 8 Mar 06 | A Royal Navy medic from Huddersfield has been doing her bit to help improve the lives of children in western Africa. Medical Assistant Michelle Taylor, currently attached to the Royal Naval Hospital, Gibraltar, has just returned from Exercise Gambian Roller, a short-term training team detachment in the Gambia. |
| 20 Feb 06 | A canine detection team has been drafted in to help sniff out landmines in parts of Africa. The six Shepherd dogs - called Atti, Aska, Bronco, Fly, Lucky and West - are being used by a British military training team in Kenya to train African forces in de-mining techniques. |
| 17 Feb 06 | Personnel from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment have been taking part in an exercise in western Africa aimed at teaching a variety of vital military skills to 150 eager Gambian soldiers. |
| 9 Feb 06 | Kenya and the UK have renewed a highly-valued agreement which allows British soldiers to conduct essential training in Kenyan Forces training areas, the Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram announced. |
| 10 Jan 06 | A British Army team has completed the first recorded descent by canoe of Africa's White Volta River – which turned out to be longer than expected. The 12-strong squad of paddlers from 5 General Support Medical Regiment, based at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, navigated a total of 1,071km in 32 days – which was almost 100km more than they'd budgeted for, but still a day ahead of schedule. |
| 9 Dec 05 | Soldiers from the British Army are part of an international team helping to improve the military capability of an African country rebuilding after civil war. |
| 1 Dec 05 | Lieutenant Colonel Lorraine White is used to facing a challenge – but just how do you locate, in one of the poorest countries in the world, an engineer capable of fixing a generator so that doctors do not have to perform life-or-death surgery in the dark? |
| 28 Nov 05 | The lives of around 2,400 people in the villages of Kpalusogu and Koshibu in Northern Ghana have been transformed, thanks to a six-man team of Royal Engineers. |
| 23 Nov 05 | A 12-strong team of Territorial Army medics from the North West are preparing to swap hospital wards and GPs surgeries for a two-week mission to Africa. |
| 14 Nov 05 | Royal Marine Commandos from Devon-based 3 Commando Brigade have been honing their skills during a major multi-national exercise in western Africa. Exercise Green Osprey, which took place in Senegal, saw Marines from 59 Independent Commando Squadron Royal Engineers based at Barnstaple in North Devon, testing their abilities and knowledge to the limit. |
| 21 Oct 05 | A six hour walk for water will become a thing of the past for thousands of Ghanaians when a team of Royal Engineers install a water pipeline that will deliver water at the turn of a tap. |
| 18 Oct 05 | Feature: Valour in the Congo: The UN were holding out for a hero in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They found one in Marine reservist Colonel Paul Jobbins. |
| 23 Sep 05 | The Ministry of Defence has signed an agreement with the South African Government to restore and maintain war graves from the Boer War. The Boer War lasted from 1899-1902, claiming the lives of 22,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers. |
| 22 Sep 05 | The second phase of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) was opened in Ghana by UK Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram, and the Ghanaian Defence Minister, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufour. |
| 21 Sep 05 | The first of 43 new trucks were handed over to the Sierra Leone Armed Forces by UK Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram. |
| 20 Sep 05 | An extra £200,000 is to be allocated to assist training of over 17,000 Nigerian troops as peacekeepers in Africa, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram announced whilst visiting the peacekeeping training school in Jaji, Nigeria. |
| 5 Sep 05 | Over fifty tennis rackets, balls and tennis clothing were donated to the children of Sierra Leone by young tennis players from the Northern Tennis club in Manchester in summer 2004. |
| 4 Aug 05 | Army medics from Aldershot have just returned from a six week expedition inoculating and treating remote tribal people in northern and central Kenya. |
| 20 Jul 05 | The third in a series of special reports from West Africa looking at the work of British military and civilian personnel helping to improve the lives of people in Sierra Leone.COLONEL Steve Davies is on a year's posting to Freetown as an advisor to the Sierra Leone MOD. Every weekend he is busy on his second, unofficial, job: helping to save the last reminders of Sierra Leone's railways. |
| 19 Jul 05 | The second in a series of special reports from West Africa looking at the work of British military and civilian personnel helping to improve the lives of people in Sierra Leone. WHEN Tony Blair's father taught at Freetown's Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone was an African success story. But that was before the civil war. |
| 18 Jul 05 | The first in a series of special reports from West Africa looking at the work of British military and civilian personnel helping to improve the lives of people in Sierra Leone. A student protest and a simultaneous demonstration by the Drivers' Union have created gridlock in the streets of Freetown. A border incursion in the east of the country is threatening to get out of hand, and - although nobody knows it yet - an unattended cooking fire is about to cause a major blaze in Freetown's shanty quarter. |
| 27 Apr 05 | A squad of Royal Air Force footballers have completed a successful tour to South Africa, and in the process have helped to improve the lives of disadvantaged children. |
| 17 Feb 05 | The first East African International Mine Action Training Centre (IMATC) was formally opened by Adam Ingram, UK Minister for the Armed Forces, in Kenya. As an internationally-recognised Centre of Excellence, it will provide high quality training, advice and expertise on all aspects of humanitarian demining. |
| 29 Jul 04 | Minister for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram, announced the MOD's intention to provide the Government of Sierra Leone with £4.5m worth of technical assistance funding for trucks and communications equipment over the next three years. |
| 24 Jan 04 | The opening of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping and Training Centre, in Ghana, "marks a mile stone in international co-operation towards developing West African peacekeeping and peace support operating capabilities", said Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram and the FCO's Minister for Africa, Chris Mullin. |
| 23 Jun 03 | Following his announcement in the House of Commons on 12 Jun 03 that the UK would be contributing an engineer detachment and staff officers to the European Union-led stabilisation force deploying to Bunia in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces gave further details in Parliament about the precise size and task of the UK contingent. |
| 12 Jun 03 | The Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram MP, confirmed that the United Kingdom would be contributing a contingent to the European Union military force being deployed to help stabilise the situation in Bunia in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. |
| 21 Feb 03 | As a demonstration of the United Kingdom's continuing military commitment to supporting the settlement process in Sierra Leone, a company group from the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles is being deployed to Freetown. |
| 6 Feb 03 | 2002 saw significant support to charities in Kenya by the British Army Training and Liaison Staff (BATLSK), who supervise the use of training areas in the country by British forces. The year was rounded off by a major fundraising event - a whisky-tasting dinner well attended by the British community. |
| 12 Nov 02 | The United Kingdom has taken over command of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Major General Robert Gordon has become the force commander of 4500 UN troops monitoring the end of fighting between the Ethiopians and Eritreans in the border zone. The UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea also has responsibility for supporting work to demine, delineate and demarcate the border between the two countries. |
| 22 Aug 02 | 38 British soldiers and airmen have been working with the Zambian Wildlife Authority and the David Shepherd Wildlife Conservation Trust, refurbishing equipment for use in the fight against poachers. |
