Germany is suspending the Bundeswehr mission in West Africa Mali until further notice. The announcement was made by a Defense Ministry spokesman on Friday in Berlin. The Malian government has repeatedly denied the Bundeswehr overflight rights, it said in justification. With the flight, the on-site team must be rotated. In principle, Germany is still willing to participate in the international peace mission.
However, this only makes sense if supported by the local government, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. Earlier this week, the head of the political department at the Federal Foreign Office for Africa, Latin America, the Near East and the Middle East, Christian Buck, traveled to Mali for negotiations. It was then said that the Malian side had signaled that troop rotation could resume in the near future. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) is said to have only received corresponding reassurances in a phone call to her Malian counterpart, Sadio Camara, on Thursday.
Mali, with around 20 million people, has seen three military coups since 2012 and is considered extremely politically unstable. Since the most recent coup in May 2021, the country has been led by an interim military government tasked with maintaining close ties with Russia. Since then, the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA, in which the Bundeswehr is also involved, has been repeatedly undermined. The Austrian Armed Forces are involved with two peacekeepers in Mali. There are also 23 army soldiers who are part of the EU EUTM training mission for the Malian army. (apa)