The Bundeswehr is confronted with new difficulties when deployed in Mali. The military junta in the West African crisis-ridden state refused a German military aircraft an overflight on Wednesday. According to sources in the Defense Ministry, such a case has never happened before.
The military junta has been hampering the air traffic of the UN mission Minusma for almost a week in the dispute over sanctions from neighboring countries. Government circles said that German military flights should actually be exempt from this. On board the machine were 75 German soldiers who were intended for the relief. The Bundeswehr is involved in MINUSMA and the EU training mission EUTM in Mali and has a total of more than 1,300 soldiers in the country.
Continuation of the Bundeswehr mission questionable
The Bundeswehr aircraft took off from Wunstorf in Lower Saxony and headed for the Niamey air transport base in Niger. The Bundeswehr maintains a logistics hub there for operations in the Sahel region. After the overflight ban, the machine should switch to Gran Canaria in the evening.
The ban is already having serious effects on the deployment of German soldiers, as it also affects flights by German reconnaissance drones. In a first reaction, the Ministry of Defense arranged for German forces not to be allowed to go on larger patrols for security reasons.
The recent decision by the Malian government to ban the flight is also likely to have an impact on the discussion about extending the Bundeswehr’s mission in Mali. It is part of various decisions by the Malian government that have met with fierce criticism from international allies in the country. The Malian government relies on Russian mercenaries in the fight against terror, and announced elections are to be delayed for years. A continuation of the German mission under these conditions is now considered unlikely.
With material from the dpa.