German soldiers deployed to the United Nations mission in Mali (MINUSMA) today resumed their activities, suspended for almost a month due to disagreements with the military junta that has ruled the African country since August 2020.
German troops who have joined the MINUSMA contingent in Mali are helping to ensure security at the airport in Gao city, where the main maintenance camp for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission is located, according to a spokesman. voice of the German operations command at Schwielowsee, near Potsdam, speaking to the German news agency DPA.
Germany announced the suspension of its participation in MINUSMA on August 12, denouncing a new refusal to fly over the country by the authorities of the ruling military junta in Mali.
“The Malian government has once again refused to authorize a flight scheduled for today”, which was supposed to provide a rotation of personnel, a spokesman for the German Defense Ministry explained at the time.
The return of the German contingent to MINUSMA is particularly relevant in the context in which Mali finds itself in terms of security, with its back turned to the former ally and former colonial power, France, and “hand in hand” with Moscow through the paramilitary group Russian Wagner, and under increasing threat from the little-known Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) in recent weeks.
Relations between the ruling military junta in Bamako and Paris have deteriorated over the course of this year, particularly since the arrival in Mali of mercenaries from the Wagner group, which put an end to nine years of uninterrupted French military presence in Mali where it was fighting the Islamic extremist groups.
The French force Barkhane is currently finalizing the withdrawal of its military equipment from the country.
After months of animosity, the Malian authorities controlled by the military who came to power by force in August 2020 announced in May of this year that they considered the 2014 defense cooperation treaty signed with France to be null and void, as well as the agreements of 2013 and 2020, which established the framework for the presence of Operation Barkhane and the regrouping of European special forces Takuba, initiated by France and in which Portugal came to participate with about two dozen 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 Mali’s transitional authorities stabilize the country and ensure the safety and security of the civilian population. If Germany’s exit from Mali becomes definitive, the mission will face new problems, which are added to the withdrawal of France, which left MINUSMA without air support when it left.
Source: With Agencies