Lambrecht was personally irritated by the behavior of Malian Defense Minister Sadio Câmara. Camara only promised the minister on Thursday that there should be no further conditions for the mission – on Friday overflight rights were again denied, a spokesman said. “Camara’s actions speak a different language than his words,” Lambrecht criticized on Twitter.
In principle, Germany is still willing to participate in the mission. However, this only makes sense if supported by the local government, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.
The UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA has been in Mali since 2013, and the UN Security Council only extended its mandate for another year at the end of June. Mali, with around 20 million people, has seen three military coups since 2012 and is considered extremely politically unstable. In recent months, the military junta in Mali has increasingly worsened the conditions for a military operation. Tensions also increased over the military junta’s cooperation with the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which is said to have close ties to the Kremlin and is suspected of committing massive human rights violations. France has already withdrawn most of its soldiers.
The Austrian Armed Forces are involved with two soldiers from the MINUSMA force in Mali. There are also 23 army soldiers who are part of the EU EUTM training mission for the Malian army.