Sgt Stephen operates the door guns in a Chinook during an RAF flight over the desert, part of Operation NEWCOMBE CH47, the codename for British military assistance to France's Operation Barkhane. NEWCOMBE consists of three Royal Air Force Chinook helicopters from RAF Odiham, supported by around 90 British troops.
In 2012, Islamist radicals linked to al-Qaeda, hijacked an uprising by ethnic Tuareg people and went on to seize cities across northern Mali, holding on for nearly a year until they were forced out by a French military intervention.