Bellum Acta - Intel, Urgent News and Archives

2023-05-08 18:55:40 - 3rd borough of Lyon's city hall stormed by crowd. Open / Comment

2023-05-08 18:55:40 - Lyon after Macron came to commemorate French resistance during WW2. Open / Comment

2023-05-05 01:34:52 Martin Sellner now has an English-language Telegram channel: @MartinSellner_english Open / Comment

2023-05-05 00:17:37 Evacuating Sudan: An amphibious gap and missed opportunity James G. Foggo

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. James G. Foggo is the dean for the Navy League’s Center for Maritime Strategy. He previously served as commander of Naval Forces Europe and of Naval Forces, Africa.

While it is good to have a U.S. presence available for evacuation of civilians from Sudan, ordinarily an operation like this would involve an expeditionary strike group, or ESG, made up of three big-deck amphibious ships: one light helicopter assault ship, one landing platform dock ship and one landing ship dock. Loitering off the coast, an ESG brings the president of the United States and the combatant commander multiple employment options. Humanitarian lift operations can be conducted via air, land or sea. In the event of hostilities, the kit bag of an ESG includes armed, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft that can enter a nonpermissive or hostile environment, suppress fires, pick up personnel, and deliver them to safety.

In the case of violence in Sudan, these options were unavailable. The problem is both one of readiness and inventory.

While I would agree it is unlikely we will see another Iwo Jima- or Inchon-like amphibious invasion in the near or distant future, expeditionary strike groups and amphibious warships provide much in terms of capability to include forward presence and showing the flag; humanitarian assistance and disaster relief; noncombatant evacuation operations; delivery of combat capability ashore with massive sealift and airlift capacity; and a mobile Level 2 surgical hospital facility. Ad hoc groups such as the one currently assembled do not deliver the same set of options.

While we may have dodged a bullet this time, the conflict is nowhere near over. And like Afghanistan, we will continue to hear of the plight of Americans and dual citizens who are caught up in the fray for the foreseeable future.

https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2023/05/03/evacuating-sudan-an-amphibious-gap-and-missed-opportunity/ Open / Comment

2023-05-05 00:17:37 Haftar and Meloni discuss migration crisis, Sudan conflict during 2-hour meeting

Khalifa Haftar, the General Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), met today with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome where they discussed a number of topics including “unprecedented increase” of the migratory flow towards Italy, according to multiple reports by Italian press.

According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Haftar and Meloni also discussed the ongoing conflict in Sudan during their two-hour conversation at Palazzo Chigi.

During the meeting, Meloni confirmed her country’s support for the United Nations’ plan to revitalize the political process that could lead to presidential and parliamentary elections by the end of 2023 in Libya, according to Italian news agency Ansa.

https://libyaupdate.com/haftar-and-meloni-discuss-migration-crisis-sudan-conflict-during-2-hour-meeting/ Open / Comment

2023-05-05 00:17:37 More than 800,000 people could soon flee Sudan, UN says

The fighting raging in Sudan could spur more than 800,000 people to flee into neighbouring countries, the United Nations warned Monday. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said that it was now working with a planning figure of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the violence that erupted in Sudan on April 15.

Sudan hosted 1.13 million refugees before the conflict started -- one of the largest refugee populations in Africa -- including some 800,000 from South Sudan. 

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20230501-more-than-800-000-people-could-soon-flee-sudan-un-says Open / Comment

2023-05-04 23:11:08 — Ukrainian Air Force Command on Facebook:

— "May 4 about 20 hours in the Kiev region, during the planned flight, we lost control of a UAV Bayraktar TB2.

Since the uncontrolled stay of UAV in the skies of the capital could lead to unwanted consequences, the decision was made to apply mobile fire group calculations.

The target is destroyed!

It's a pity, but it's still a technology, and such cases happen.

Probably a technical malfunction, the causes are being established.

As a result of the combat and the fall of the debris of the UAV, there are no casualties or injured."

Link Open / Comment

2023-05-04 22:38:37 — A video shared on Ukrainian and Russian social medias show one of the residents of the Ukrainian capital from the balcony of his house fires with his personal rifle at the drone flying over the city Open / Comment

2023-05-04 22:36:25 Blinken: Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says progress is being made through negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington DC. Open / Comment

2023-05-04 22:31:52 — Russian channels (as well some Western Observers) that the drone shot down in Kyiv has similar the characteristic Bayraktar TB2 on four points of suspension for armament and three propellers are clearly visible. https://t.me/milinfolive/100190 Open / Comment