The Government of Germany announced this Friday the suspension of its peacekeeping military deployment in Mali, a measure that it will apply until further notice after recent tensions in the African country due to the presence of foreign troops.
The German Army already announced a week ago the withdrawal of 60 soldiers from a logistics base at the airport in the Malian capital, Bamako, in a new episode of tension with the Malian authorities who demanded the departure of that contingent.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense has confirmed the paralysis of the ‘sine die’ mission and explained that the Malian government has repeatedly denied the flight rights of aircraft intended to regularly replace personnel deployed in the African country.
A representative of the Foreign Ministry traveled to Mali this week to negotiate and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht received guarantees on Thursday from her Malian counterpart, Sadio Camara, that the rotation of troops would be facilitated.
Germany, however, remains willing to participate in the UN mission — it has a thousand soldiers –, according to the government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit. He has also clarified that this route only makes sense if there is backing from the local authorities.
Mali has suffered three military coups since 2012 and, in fact, has been governed since May by a military junta that in recent months has strengthened its ties with Russia, to the detriment of European countries.
