Germany announced this Friday the suspension “until further notice” of most of its military operations in Mali, where it is part of the United Nations mission (MINUSMA), denouncing a new refusal to fly over the country by the Malian authorities.
The Malian government has once again refused to authorize a flight scheduled for today,” which was supposed to provide a staff rotation, explained a spokesman for the German Defense Ministry.
Consequence, “We suspend our reconnaissance operations and helicopter flights until further notice”because “it is no longer possible to support MINUSMA operationally,” added the same source.
Without the new staff, who were supposed to “replace [parcialmente] the French forces”, which are withdrawing, “security on the ground is no longer guaranteed”, “the remaining forces” must assume this responsibility and are no longer in a position to carry out their usual missions, explained the spokesman at a press conference. press.
The overflight was denied despite assurances to the contrary given by Mali’s Defense Minister Sadio Camara during a telephone conversation Thursday with his German counterpart Christine Lambrecht, the spokesman added.
Camara’s actions say something different from his words,” the German minister said on Twitter.
The German decision comes as Mali, which has pushed its former French ally to embrace cooperation with Moscow, faces a resurgence of attacks by the little-known Islam and Muslim Support Group (GSIM, JNIM in Arabic) in recent weeks.
Relations between the ruling military junta in Bamako and Paris, the former colonial power, have deteriorated in recent months, particularly since the arrival in Mali of paramilitary agents from the Russian private security group Wagner, which left the two countries back to back with back after nine years of uninterrupted French military presence in Mali to fight Islamic extremist groups.
The French Barkhane force is currently finalizing the withdrawal of the respective military equipment from the country.
After months of animosity, the military-controlled Malian authorities who came to power by force in August 2020 announced in May this year that they considered the 2014 defense cooperation treaty signed with France null and void, as well as the 2013 agreements and 2020, which set the stage for the presence of the Barkhane operation and the regrouping of the European Takuba special forces, initiated by France and in which Portugal came to participate with some twenty soldiers.
Relations between Mali and the United Nations, whose peacekeeping forces have been in the country since 2013, have also deteriorated in recent weeks.
MINUSMA was established by the UN Security Council in April 2013 to help the transitional authorities of Mali to stabilize the country and guarantee the security of the civilian population. If Germany’s departure from Mali becomes final, the mission will face new problems, added to the withdrawal of France, which left MINUSMA without air support upon departure.
Source: Observadora
