African Lions 21 is scheduled to kick off in June 2021. This year’s iteration will involve ~10,000 troops from the U.S., Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and cities such as Dakhla or Mahbes amid a military escalation in Western Sahara.
The exercises will start at the beginning of June and will last for 12 days.
The exercise, known as African Lion (the African Lion), ground operations that are organized every year and in which more than 10,000 soldiers from nine national armies will be present, including Spain, Tunisia and Senegal, will be carried out this year and for the first time in the occupied territory of Western Sahara, while the number of troops and equipment involved will be “minimized” due to the pandemic.
Despite the current military escalation in Western Sahara, there are serious concerns about the possible response that the Polisario Front will give, which considered the tests carried out earlier this month on the shores of Western Sahara as a “provocation”.
The US Sixth Fleet with the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, several destroyer ships, as well as helicopters and aircraft from both navies participated in these maneuvers.
Planners for exercise African Lion 21 survey a small arms weapons range during a visit to Morocco Jan. 20, 2021.
