Army Troops in Mali awarded Special Service Medal for defusing IEDs

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Alertness, coupled with battle-hardened experience and professionalism of Sri Lanka Combat Convoy Company (CCC) troops, practiced in Mali under life-threatening circumstances resulted in the award of a special service medal to Major R.A.D.M.D Senevirathna of 12 Sri Lanka Engineers (SLE) in the CCC during an appreciative meeting.

During a recent logistics convoy from Gao to Kidal in Mali, the Sri Lanka Search and Detection team of the CCC uncovered two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and effectively defused both of them before they caused a bloodbath. 

Mali-based CCC under the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has been engaged in convoy protection duties in Mali since the year 2017.

Lieutenant General Cornelis Johannes Matthijssen, the Force Commander, MINUSMA upon arrival at the CCC camp, highly appreciated the professional competence of the troops of the 4th Combat Convoy Company of Sri Lanka Army and awarded a Service Appreciation Medal to the senior officer, Major R.A.D.M.D Senevirathna of 12 Sri Lanka Engineers (SLE) who discovered both landmines, buried near the roadside.

The MINUSMA Force Commander spoke highly of the CCC’s professional management of the defusion, alertness, attention, and diligence after their exclusive detection by the said Officer and the CCC troops, responsible for search and detection operations.

In the past 2-3 months, tribal terrorist groups in Mali have intensified their fierce internecine violent acts targeting their rivals as well as UN troops serving the landlocked country. 

Similarly, their brutal terrorist attacks have posed a formidable threat to all UN troops, deployed for UN peacekeeping assignments.