“Unacceptable operation”
Military junta in Mali denied Bundeswehr aircraft overflight – outrage in Berlin
Such an A400M of the Bundeswehr was denied overflight in Mali by the local military government
© Hauke-Christian Dittrich / DPA
A Bundeswehr military aircraft was refused a flight over Mali by the local military junta. The reasons are “in the Enlightenment”. The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann spoke of an “unfriendly act”.
The military government in the West African crisis state of Mali refused a German military aircraft to fly over it for the first time on Wednesday. The A400M transport aircraft had turned back with 75 soldiers on board, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Berlin.
According to the Bundeswehr, the aircraft took off from the Wunstorf air base 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. The machine should first land on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria.
According to a spokesman, the overflight had previously been approved. The reasons for the denied approval “are currently being clarified,” he added.
Strack-Zimmermann: “I’m curious about the explanation”
The military junta in Mali has been hampering the air traffic of the UN mission Minusma for almost a week in the dispute over sanctions from neighboring countries. According to the Federal Foreign Office, medically justified flights were not affected. The Bundeswehr is involved in the Minusma mission and the EU training mission EUTM in the West African country and has a total of more than 1,300 soldiers there. The political situation in the Sahel state has been characterized by severe instability since 2012, which is often caused by jihadist-motivated violence.
The chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), reacted sharply to the overflight ban for the Bundeswehr. Strack-Zimmermann spoke to the AFP news agency on Thursday of “an unacceptable process, even an unfriendly act that must be clarified immediately”.
This is what the Airbus A400M looks like from the outside and inside
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It is incomprehensible that the Malian military government is apparently seeking a confrontation with the international troops stationed in the country: “Mali is refusing the Bundeswehr an overflight over its national territory and at the same time our soldiers are on duty in this very Mali to maintain peace on site secure,” said Strack-Zimmermann. “I’m curious about the explanation.”
The left sees the incident confirming their rejection of the mission. “It is simply scandalous and completely unacceptable that the Bundeswehr, contrary to its constitutional mandate, has been securing a coup government in Mali for two years now,” said Bundestag member Dagdelen to AFP. “The federal government has completely lost its political compass.” The Bundeswehr must be withdrawn “immediately”.