Prince Joachim visits French & Danish military bases with fellow students

Today, it was revealed by the Court that Prince Joachim visited military bases in North Africa with his fellow students. Read more below!

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Jeg har sammen med mine medstuderende fra CHEM været på studiebesøg ved Opération Barkhane i Sahel-bæltet i det nordvestlige Afrika. Besøget gik blandt andet til Gao i Mali, hvor jeg fik mulighed for at aflægge et uformelt besøg ved det danske helikopterdetachement. Her blev jeg budt indenfor til æbleskiver i det danske område “Danish House”, hvor jeg selvfølgelig ønskede alle en glædelig jul. Det danske bidrag og de danske soldaters indsats er højt værdsat af koalitionen. 📸 H.K.H. Prins Joachim©️

A post shared by DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 (@detdanskekongehus) on Dec 20, 2019 at 5:59am PST

Together with his fellow students at the Center des Hautes Études Militaires (CHEM), Prince Joachim has just been on a round trip to French military bases in Chad, Niger and Mali.

In Gao, Mali, he was given the opportunity to make an informal visit to the Danish helicopter detachment. Here, the Danish soldiers talked about their duties & Prince Joachim talked about the strategic effect that the Danish contribution is delivering in Operation Barkhane. The visit ended in the Danish area “Danish House”, where Prince Joachim wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

Prince Joachim posted for the second time a personal message on the Court’s Instagram account saying:

Together with my fellow CHEM students, I went on study visits to the Opération Barkhane in the Sahel belt in North-West Africa. Among other things, we went to Gao in Mali where I was given an informal visit to the Danish helicopter department. Here I was invited inside the « Danish House » where of course I wished everyone a Merry Christmas. The Danish contribution and the efforts of the Danish soldiers are highly appreciated by the coalition.

Operation Barkhane is an ongoing anti-insurgent operation in Africa’s Sahel region, which commenced 1 August 2014. It consists of a 4,500-strong French force, which is permanently headquartered in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The operation has been designed with five countries, and former French colonies, in the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Since December 2019, Denmark is one of the countries who support the Opération with 70 danish troops and two heavy lift helicopters.