military
Bundeswehr sends civilian machine for troops to Mali
The Bundeswehr is sending a civilian plane to Mali for the troop rotation. The interim government there is currently hindering the exchange with the help of military aircraft. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Military transporters have not been given permission to fly by the transitional government in Mali. The Bundeswehr is therefore now using civilian machines for the exchange of troops.
The Bundeswehr has sent a civilian machine for the troop rotation of the soldiers in West African Mali, which has been hampered by conflicts. The authorities there had given permission for a flight this Thursday, a spokesman for the operations command near Potsdam told the German Press Agency. The plane took off from Cologne at 05:47. On board were 88 soldiers from the UN mission Minusma and 5 soldiers from the EU training mission EUTM Mali, according to a briefing for the Bundestag.
There are also civilian flights between Mali’s capital, Bamako, and the camp on the outskirts of the airport in the city of Gao. It was the first flight for a change of personnel for the German mission contingent after the Malian transitional government suspended the contingent change of the UN mission Minusma on July 14, it said. It is also planned for German soldiers to fly back to Germany from Mali.
The civilian flight was an alternative to flying in a military transporter, for which the Malian interim government had not given permission. The Federal Foreign Office had previously stated that 16 troop-contributing countries had written a letter to the United Nations demanding that the UN “now do even more to ensure that working conditions in Mali are now normalized again as quickly as possible”.
On Monday, France withdrew the last soldiers of its anti-terrorist operation “Barkhane” from Mali and thus also left the camp in Gao. Mali, with around 20 million inhabitants, has experienced three military coups since 2012 and is considered to be extremely unstable politically. Since the most recent coup in May 2021, it has been run by a military government that has been criticized by Western states for its close ties with Russia.