In his speech on Wednesday, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron announced the launch of Operation Resilience with a “protection” mission, health and logistics, entrusted to the army and particularly mobilized in Overseas.
Announced on Wednesday by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, Operation Resilience will be deployed on the territory. Entrusted to the army, this mission aims to protect the health and logistics of the population, particularly in Overseas France. From the military hospital in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) in the Grand Est, one of the regions most affected by the coronavirus, Emmanuel Macron launched the operation in a context of “war”.
Overseas as a priority
To lead Operation Resilience, the Chief of the Defense Staff, General François Lecointre, was appointed with the Center for Planning and Conduct of Operations (CPCO) located on the premises of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. . The objective is to refocus the military operations that have taken place since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic on the territory. On March 18, the armed forces were mobilized to evacuate 18 patients from Alsace by air, 12 from Corsica by boat, and to install a hospital structure equipped with 30 intensive care beds in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin).
The missions of the operation are threefold: fromhealth”from “logistics” and of “protection”. The army is not intended to enforce containment even if it can occasionally intervene to protect buildings or sensitive sites. “The armies are not intended to issue tickets in the event of non-compliance with confinement (…) but there are places in which medical equipment, medicines, respirators are stored. These are places of vital importance. Protecting these places against possible thefts, which we have seen multiply in recent days, is absolutely essential”declared Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces at RTL.
Sentinel and Resilience at the front
One of the main missions of Operation Resilience is to support overseas populations. Two amphibious helicopter carriers, the Mistral and the Dixmude, will thus respectively make their way to the Réunion-Mayotte area and to the Antilles-Guyana. These ships will come to the aid of the local medical corps, and each one is equipped with a hospital on board. Le Tonnerre, which evacuated patients from Corsica, will remain stationed in the Mediterranean Sea. Health and logistical operations will also be part of the prerogatives of the army in Overseas France.
This mission, specified the Head of State, will be very different from Operation Sentinel. This last mission mobilizes around 7,000 soldiers against the terrorist threat. Despite the “war” against Covid-19, this anti-terrorist operation continues because “threat remains”said the staff to AFP.
.
