As of: 07/14/2022 5:43 p.m
For the time being, Mali is banning all changes of forces in the UN mission MINUSMA. The Bundeswehr is also affected. Previously, there had been a scandal about arrested soldiers from a UN security team.
Relations between West African Mali and the countries of the UN mission have suffered another setback. With immediate effect, the country is suspending the personnel changes of blue helmet soldiers of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA, in which the Bundeswehr is also involved.
The Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bamako announced that planned and already announced rotations of the UN forces should no longer exist for the time being. This applies until a meeting between the Malian government and the UN mission takes place, for which there is no date yet.
The MINUSMA operation with 13,300 soldiers and 1,920 police officers was only extended by a year at the end of June. Germany provides around 1,100 of these soldiers, and their deployment is currently considered the most dangerous in the Bundeswehr.
Normally, the staff rotates constantly – according to the Bundeswehr, German soldiers are usually in Mali for about four months and then return to Germany. Only this week members of the Bundeswehr were flown out of Mali. A spokesman for the Bundeswehr initially did not comment on Mali’s decision.
scandal about the arrest of soldiers
On Wednesday, the Malian government arrested 49 soldiers from neighboring Ivory Coast in Bamako. According to military sources, they had flown to Mali as an exchange contingent for another unit and were arrested immediately after landing.
The Malian government accuses them of entering the country illegally and planning a coup. According to MINUSMA spokesman Olivier Salgado, the soldiers are not part of the UN troops, but have been transferred to Mali as logistical support, which is “common practice”. The government of the Ivory Coast said the soldiers had been regularly announced and were to replace a security team protecting an airport in Mali.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had criticized the arrest and reiterated her fundamental doubts about working with the Malian government. She demanded that the soldiers be released.
Relations with Mali bad
Mali has been plagued by jihadist violence for years. An Islamist uprising began in the country in 2012 and spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Several thousand soldiers and civilians have already died and two million people have been displaced.
Mali’s poorly equipped army is repeatedly accused of human rights violations. After military coups in Mali in August 2020 and May 2021, the West African country’s relations with western countries like France and Germany have deteriorated significantly.