The Operation Barkhane Motion

This house recognises that:

(1) Operation Barkhane is an ongoing military operation aimed at tackling destabilising insurgent activity and terrorism in the Sahel region. The Sahel region suffers from a surge in insurgency and instability which has led to various military operations established in recent years. Our partners require greater support to effectively counter the forces of Boko Haram and ISIL remnants.

(2) Strategic goals in securing stability in the Sahel outlined in —

(a) reducing the amount of refugees fleeing the region due to instability; (b) destroying global terrorist networks that still threaten us and our allies; (c) and countering the unnecessary loss of civilian life from growing terrorist forces and organised violence.

This House notes that:

(1) Operation Barkhane, currently has the following partner forces engaged in active military operations:

(a) France, (b) Burkina Faso, (c) Chad, (d) Mali, (e) Mauritania, (f) Niger, (g) Estonia, (h) Sweden, (i) and the Czech Republic.

(3) Currently, the United Kingdom and the following nations already support ongoing operations but are not engaged in active operations —

(a) Canada, (b) the United States, (c) and Denmark.

Therefore this House urges:

(1) the Government to commit to formally joining ongoing Sahel operations in supporting our allies to a greater extent to help maintain peace and stability, whilst securing mutual strategic interest.

Opening Speech by BlueEarlGrey: Mr Speaker,

The Sahel region is one of the most turbulent areas of the world and as a nation on internationalistic values where not only are our moral values challenged but our strategic interests at risk, we must increase our commitment to aiding our allies by providing British military presence in the Sahel region. Growing terrorist actors have seen increases in unnecessary and preventable civilian deaths as our allies struggle to contain the region themselves. The destabilisation of these insurgents has also seen spikes in refugees fleeing to Europe and subsequently the UK, it is in our interest to stop the lives of people being destroyed. Even from a counter terrorism viewpoint, the Sahel region remains a strong bulwark for the remnants of ISIL and Boko Haram, destroying a growing network that supports global terrorism, which we’ve seen directly affect us, should be a priority which is why we urge the government to stand up and work towards achieving these goals and more.

This Motion was submitted by u/BlueEarlGrey, Spokesperson for Defence, on behalf of the Conservative & Unionist Party.

This Reading shall end on the 4th at 10PM BST.