In Geopolitics Today - Thursday, February 17th
France Leads European Withdrawal from Mali, Geomagnetic Storm Disrupts Starlink Deployment, Egypt and Russia Voice Support for New Leader of Libya
France Leads European Withdrawal from Mali
France and its allies are withdrawing their European military force from Mali after almost 10 years fighting an armed unrest. While the withdrawal has come at the request of Mali’s government, France and its European and Canadian allies vowed to continue conducting military operations in the Sahel region via “joint action against terrorism” in Niger and in the Gulf of Guinea. The announcement follows a meeting between African and European leaders which took place in Paris at the side-lines of the ongoing summit between the African Union and the European Union in Brussels.
A total of 25,000 foreign troops are currently deployed across the Sahel. They include a French contingent of roughly 4,300 troops, which are joined by a UN peacekeeping mission established in 2013 as well as an EU military training mission. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted meetings with key Sahel allies of France prior to the announcement, with leaders from Chad, Mauritania and Niger in attendance, while officials from Mali and Burkina Faso were not invited to the meeting. Relations between France and Mali have soured since the military government in Bamako refused to adhere to French demands to reinstate a civilian government. The military government in Bamako has asked all foreign forces to leave the country via a coordinated withdrawal process.
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Geomagnetic Storm Disrupts Starlink Deployment
A batch of SpaceX Starlink satellites has encountered geomagnetic activity in low-earth orbit (LEO), incapacitating up to 40 of the small satellites as a result of a geomagnetic storm. Once completed, the Starlink constellation will consist of over 11,000 satellites, offering high-speed internet services worldwide that bypass government controls, and allowing the United States to transmit and monitor data even in areas where foreign governments object to such activities.
The most recent batch of Starlink satellites sent into LEO amounted to 49, with an estimated 40 of them lost due to an unexpected geomagnetic storm which released a burst of energy from the sun. A geomagnetic storm occurs when the Earth’s magnetosphere is impacted by solar winds, increasing heat in the upper atmosphere which results in higher density. Typically, such energy bursts pose little problems for satellites, but the Starlink satellites are much smaller and were caught at a vulnerable moment in their deployment process. Starlink satellites are first deployed to a lower orbit of about 200 kilometres, before using low power electric thrusters which take them to their 540-kilometre-high LEO and allows them to adjust orientation.
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Egypt and Russia Voice Support for New Leader of Libya
Following another dramatic schism within Libyan politics earlier this month, the governments in Cairo and Moscow have thrown their weight behind Fathi Bashagha, who was recently appointed as prime minister by the country's House of Representatives. Despite the fact that the UN-backed government run by Abdulhamid Dbeibeh has refused to transfer power until an indefinitely-posponed election takes place, Egypt and Russia have decided to publicly voice support for Bashagha’s leadership bid.
In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Hafez expressed the country’s support for the legitimacy of the Libyan House of Representatives, urging Bashagha to assume his new responsibilities by enacting laws and granting legitimacy to the executive authority of the new prime minster. In a similar vein, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova chose to recognize the vote held by the Libyan House of Representatives as one that “should be respected.” The Russian position remains consistent with its years-long involvement in Libya (along with Egypt and the UAE) in support of the military leader Khalifa Hifter, who was one of the members participating in the process of nominating and approving the candidacy of Bashagha.
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