Year: 2019

Germany pledges €110 million to boost NATO battalion infrastructure in Lithuania

Germany will invest €110 million (US$127 million) in military infrastructure in Lithuania until 2021, its defense minister said on a Monday, February 4 a visit to mark two years since NATO installed battalions in the Baltic region to ward off Russia. In 2017, NATO deployed four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states as a counter against possible Russian action following its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Germany leads the NATO battalion in Lithuania comprising 1,200 troops from 10 countries. “We’re going to invest in the long-term engagement,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters, adding that Berlin would invest in “common barracks and training fields” in Lithuania until 2021. Lithuania’s defense minister Raimundas Karoblis hailed Germany’s spending plans as evidence of commitment to the NATO deployment. “We have heard very officially, very clearly at the political level … that Germany is for the long run here and will stay here as long as the security situation will demand it,” Karoblis said. The other three NATO battalions deployed in 2017 are based in Estonia, Latvia and Poland and are led by the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, respectively. The three Baltic states, with a combined population of …

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US gives control center to Niger for Boko Haram operations

The US turned over a communications and operations center to the Niger army to help the African nation battle Boko Haram

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Jordan to hold new talks on Yemen prisoner swap deal

Yemeni government delegates and Houthi rebels will reconvene in Jordan for a new round of talks to thrash out a deal on a prisoner exchange

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French Mirage 2000 jets strike vehicles that entered Chad from Libya

French Mirage 2000 fighter jets carried out air strikes to halt an armed group that entered northern Chad from Libya in a column of 40 pickups

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US withdrawal from INF treaty fires the starting pistol on a new arms race

Withdrawal from the Cold War intermediate-range nuclear missile limitation treaty serves under-pressure US President Donald Trump in several ways, Dr Michelle Bentley argues

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‘Strong’ explosion at busy market in Somalia capital, police say

A powerful blast rocked a busy market in the Somali capital Mogadishu, which is regularly targeted by Al-Shabaab, police said

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Pentagon orders 3,750 more troops to US-Mexico border

The US will send an additional 3,750 troops to its frontier with Mexico, the Pentagon said, as President Donald Trump doubled down on his call for a border wall

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Roadside bomb kills one, injures four in Manbij, Syria

A roadside bomb struck a minibus carrying teachers in Manbij in northern Syria, killing one and injuring four others

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Five Philippines troops killed battling Abu Sayyaf on Jolo

A "fierce firefight" killed five Philippine soldiers and three militants from the Abu Sayyaf group suspected of the deadly cathedral bombing in Jolo

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Central African Republic peace deal ‘secured’ in Khartoum

The government of Central African Republic struck a peace deal with 14 armed groups at African Union-brokered talks in Khartoum

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