The EU announced that it is on track for the “rapid deployment” of the 550-strong European Union Training Mission in Mali (eutm), scheduled to start work on April 2.

Head of the mission, Brig. Gen. François Lecointre, made the announcement at a European External Action Service press briefing on March 5, saying it was “part of a global European approach and a global vision for the Sahel region.” He also stated that it was a military mission with an important political side to it.

Deployment was approved by EU member states on December 10, and the mission itself was established on January 17. On February 18, a small team of advisers began advice and audit work in Mali in preparation for the commencement of training scheduled for April. This, in Lecointre’s words, is “less than four months between initial steps and actually being active in the field.” He continued,

Believe me, in terms of military mission, that is something of a record. If you add to that the complexity such as the fact that it is a multinational force, I think that Europe has shown that they’ve been able to shoulder this challenge in a very effective way.

Mali’s army will need to be “completely restructured,” said Lecointre. The training mission—15 months in duration—will be engaged in an enormous amount of work to train four battalions of the Malian armed forces—about half of the troubled North African country’s 6,000-man military.

The troops will come from 22 EU countries, the biggest contributors being France and Germany. While the French have taken the lead, well ahead of schedule, in fighting Islamists in Mali, leadership of the training mission may fall on Germany, according to Deutsche Welle. “[T]he EU can draw on the German armed forces’ many years of experience. German soldiers have been active in Mali for some time [since 2005] but few people in Germany are aware of this,” it wrote on February 27.

While General Lecointre stressed that the trainers would be stationed far from combat zones, he acknowledged that a terrorist attack would be conceivable.

Through the Mali crisis, the EU is rapidly reasserting its presence in the North Africa/Middle East region in confrontation of radical Islam.

Based on Bible prophecy, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in his booklet The King of the South that “the stage is being set for an Islamic group of nations to be led by Iran as the prophesied king of the south, which will push at the king of the north, the European Union.” For more information, request your own free copies of The King of the South and Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.