There were two attacks on Ivory Coast army posts on Burkina Faso border this week. Three soldiers, and two attackers (thought to be from Burkina Faso), were killed. So far – so far away country about which we know little. It also little known that the British Army is deployed in the region. Around 250 troops from the Light Dragoon Guards and the Royal Anglian Regiment are in Mali, where the French have close to 6,000 soldiers fighting in the Sahel – home to the world’s fastest growing insurgency. The UK also has three RAF Chinook helicopter and 100 support staff there to support French operations. The attacks were further proof that the conflict threatens to spill into the states on the Gulf of Guinea, and further north into Gambia and Senegal.
Grenfell, groupthink, greed and impossibly complex systems
A simple question – asked at the right time and then acted on – could have averted the Grenfell catastrophe.