Mali

The parents of two Dutch soldiers killed in a mortar grenade accident in Mali in 2016, are pressing charges of death through negligence against the Defense organization and an unknown number of Defense employees. The parents want those responsible for the deaths of their sons - 29-year-old Henry Hoving and 24-year-old Kevin Roggeveld - to be found and tried, the Volkskrant reports. 

The Ministry of Defense's policy is insufficiently focused on safety on all fronts, and there is therefore no guarantee that military tasks can be executed safely, the Van der Veer Committee concluded in its investigation into an accidental grenade explosion that killed two Dutch soldiers during training in Mali. "Improving safety is not rocket science", the committee said adding that this needs urgent attention, NOS reports.

Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (VVD) resigned on Tuesday evening, after hours of debate in the Tweede Kamer about the Dutch Safety Board's report on the deaths of two Dutch soldiers deployed to a UN mission in Mali last year. Henry Hoving and Kevin Roggeveld were killed when a mortar grenade exploded while still in the firing tube during training.

Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of Defense will face the hardest parliamentary debate of her career on Tuesday afternoon. The Tweede Kamer will debate with her the conclusions of the Dutch Safety Board's investigation into a mortar grenade exploding during training in Mali last year, killing two Dutch soldiers. With parliamentarians being almost unanamously critical, the question is not only whether Hennis will survive this debate as Defense Minister, but also whether she will still have a position in the new Dutch government.

Next week Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of Defense will face the Tweede Kamer in a debate about a faulty grenade that cost the lives of two Dutch soldiers, and seriously injured a third, in Mali last year.

A mortar grenade that killed two Dutch soldiers during a training exercise in Mali last year was one of a thousand grenades that were unsafe - something the Ministry of Defense was aware of, Jean Debie, chairman of defense union VBM said to RTL Nieuws. If Defense followed its own safety procedures, 29-year-old Henry Hoving and 24-year-old Kevin Roggeveld would still be alive, Debie said. A third soldier sustained serious injuries.

In January the Netherlands will again deploy F-16 fighter jets to fight in the coalition against terrorist organization ISIS in Syria and Iraq, sources confirmed to the Telegraaf. A total of six jets will be sent, four for fighting and two as reserve, and they will be stationed at the Al-Azraq airbase in Jordan, according to the newspaper.

Some of the new Dutch soldiers who recently joined the UN mission in Mali, can not go out on patrol due to a shortage in materials, AD reports after visiting the soldiers over Christmas. A lack of night vision goggles and so-called jammers, used to disrupt the working of roadside bombs, are a problem in particular, according to the newspaper.

There is also not enough new shard vests, which are lighter and more comfortable than the old ones.

Dutch soldiers on a United Nations mission in Mali got a visit from Sinterklaas and two Zwarte Piets in their traditional blackface makeup on Monday, according to a photo the Ministry of Defense posted on Twitter. 

The Netherlands made 45 million euros available for cleaning up landmines in former conflict areas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday. The Ministry is investing the money in three demining projects operating in a total of 13 countries.

The Netherlands is launching cultural projects in seven countries as part of the fight against "the ring of instability around Europe", Ministers Bert Koenders of Foreign Affairs and Jet Bussemaker of Culture announced in a letter describing the Culture policy for 2017 - 2020.