New restrictions imposed by the government in Mali make it even more difficult for German soldiers to operate there. The authorities in the West African country have now withdrawn the overflight permit for the A400M military transporter, as the Bundeswehr Operations Command informed the representatives of the Bundestag Defense Committee in a briefing.
The background to this is not known, it said. The topic also dealt with the defense committee of the Bundestag on Wednesday, which met in Berlin.
According to the information, the Bundeswehr is also affected by the Malian government's instruction that foreign soldiers are no longer allowed to stay at part of the airport in the capital Bamako. All soldiers - including 60 from the Bundeswehr - must therefore leave the premises of the company "Sahel Aviation Services" within 72 hours. According to the Bundeswehr, it is a tenant of the SAS company in order to operate a logistics hub at the airport.
More and more pinpricks
"After the Malian putschist government already complimented the French out of the country, the number of needlesticks against us has increased significantly," said the defense policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Alexander Müller, on Wednesday of the dpa. "It would be naïve to believe that we are dealing with coincidences or misunderstandings here." Müller warned: "If the mood on the ground changes and the population sees us as foreign occupiers instead of "friends and helpers", then the danger to our soldiers will increase exponentially."
Originally, the Malian authorities also suspended overflight rights for the private company Starlite, which is used to transport injured people between the Malian city of Gao and the Nigerian city of Niamey. The majority of the Bundeswehr soldiers from the MINUSMA mission are stationed in Gao. In the meantime, this decision has been revised again, said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense on Wednesday in Berlin. This means that the rescue chain for the Bundeswehr is fully intact again.
Mali, with around 20 million inhabitants, has experienced a military coup three times since 2012 and is considered to be extremely unstable politically. Since the last coup in May 2021, the country has been led by a military transitional government that is supposed to maintain close ties with Russia.
The FDP defense politician Müller said that if the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma were withdrawn, the Sahel region would become more unstable. There was a threat of new suffering and misery as well as streams of refugees to Europe. "The Russian mercenaries that the Malians are now relying on have other interests than peace, stability and medical and humanitarian care. On the other hand, the safety of our soldiers always has top priority." In this environment, the right decisions must be made now.
