A major increase in the UK commitment to help French and African forces in Mali and the region has been confirmed by Downing Street.
Number 10 said 200 UK troops would train an African regional force outside Mali, with up to 40 more on an EU training mission inside Mali. A further 70 RAF personnel will oversee the use of a Sentinel surveillance in the region and 20 will staff a C-17 transport plane for a further three months.
Britain has also offered a roll-on, roll-off ferry to help transport French armoury to Mali by sea, landing on the African coast.
Britain is also offering air-to-air refuelling capacity to operate outside the UK, but based in the UK. It is possible the US will provide air-to-air refuelling.
British sources stressed again that Britain would have no combat role in Mali, but disclosed for the first time that Britain had offered to run with the French a combined joint logistics headquarters inside Mali. The UK made the offer at a meeting in Paris on Monday attended by the prime minister's national security adviser, Sir Kim Darroch. The offer was rejected by the French at this stage as unnecessary, but shows the scale of the UK preparedness to help its closest military ally in Europe.
The offer of 200 troops to train members of the AFISMA regional force is being made by the UK deputy national security adviser at a meeting in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.
The prime minister's spokesman stressed the UK military assistance was to "work out the appropriate support to regional forces". No timetable was given for the length of the UK commitment. "We will do what we can to help the French mission and to contribute to a regionalised approach

UK Troops to aid French

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