Brussels. April 11. INTERFAX - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrel said that the European Union intends to stop some forms of training of the Malian army within the framework of the EUTM Mali mission (European Union Training Mission Mali).
"We are stopping some types of training in the work of our EUTM Mali mission, which were intended for the Malian armed forces and the National Guard," the head of EU diplomacy said on Monday at a press conference in Luxembourg after a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, which reviewed the situation in Mali in a review of current events.
"Events, unfortunately, force us to do this," Borrel said, adding that the EU did not receive sufficient guarantees from the transitional authorities of Mali that the Wagner PMCs was not involved in the deaths of civilians in the Malian village of Mura at the end of March.
"But we would like to continue to stay in Mali. We continue to hope that ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African Countries) will be able to reach an agreement with the Malian Transitional Government on acceptable election dates for all," the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs summed up.
After the military coup in Mali on May 24, 2021, the "transitional president" Assimi Goita, who led the coup, announced that new elections would be held in the country in 2022. Then it became known that the "transitional government" is postponing the elections scheduled for February 2022 and is trying to extend the "transition process" indefinitely.
