13/07/2020 (Agence Europe) – Florence Parly, the French Minister of Defence, announced on Sunday 12 July that the European ‘Takuba’ task force, which will be accompanying Malian soldiers in their engagements with jihadist forces, will be ready from 15 July. “A hundred or so Estonian and French soldiers will be trained to go into the field with Malian units. In October, a second contingent of around sixty members of the Czech special forces will join them. Then, a third contingent, made up of 150 Swedish soldiers, will join them in January”, she explained in an interview with La Croix. Parly stated that Italy had just indicated that it would like to join the task force (see EUROPE 12519/16). Eleven countries officially support Takuba: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom (see EUROPE 12457/34). (CG)