Germany is largely halting Mali’s deployment of the Bundeswehr in West Africa until further notice. The Malian government has repeatedly denied the Bundeswehr overflight rights, hence the reasoning.
Germany is temporarily suspending the Bundeswehr’s mission in the crisis-stricken West African country of Mali due to disagreements with the local government. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) justified the decision on Friday by saying that Mali’s military government has again denied overflight rights to the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma. In principle, Germany is still willing to participate in the international peace mission.
As overflight rights were denied, “we must act and cease operations of our reconnaissance forces and transport flights with the CH-53 until further notice,” Lambrecht said. The behavior of the military government in Bamako is making it difficult for the German armed forces to be used as part of the UN mission, the Defense Ministry said. “A planned personnel change is therefore not possible,” he said. “This has an impact on our commitment, because the safety of our soldiers has the highest priority.”
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.
Basically interested in more participation
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 France has already withdrawn most of its soldiers.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.
(APA/dpa)