From the United States with stopover in Santa María (Azores), two Cessna 208B aircraft equipped with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, in military acronym ISR, arrived at the Gran Canaria airport on Thursday, November 30. On Friday, December 1, they left the Gran Canaria airport for Djamena after a stopover in Bamako.
These aircraft, which carried temporary registration numbers from the United States, were nevertheless to be delivered to the Chadian Air Force as part of a program of aid from the United States to African anti-terror countries.
The Chadian Air Force had suffered last July the destruction of most of its scarce military aviation as a result of a heavy storm of rain and wind and from strike by local and foreign islamist guerrillas. This aid program also includes Niger, Cameroon and the Philippines with similar problems.
In the past, other countries have benefited from these donations to support missions against terrorism and for the maintenance of peace. Before, in 2013, it was again Niger who received two Cessna 208B transport and Mauritania in 2015 two others always with ISR capacity.
In March of 2016 the passage of two other Cessna 208B Grand Caravan for the Uganda People’s Defense Air Force, UPDAF, or (Uganda Air Defense Force) was registered at the Gran Canaria Airport. On that occasion these aircraft were delivered to help the Ugandan government military contingent sent to the fight against the Al Shabaab guerrilla in neighboring Somalia.
Article and images: Antonio Rodriguez Santana