Berlin. August 12. INTERFAX - The German Defense Ministry has been forced to suspend many operations within the Bundeswehr mission in Mali due to difficulties with the country's authorities, Der Spiegel reported on Friday, citing an unnamed representative of the department.
"The Bundeswehr, in particular, stops all intelligence operations for the UN and now deals only with the security of its personnel. However, so far the troops should not be withdrawn," the newspaper notes.
However, according to Der Spiegel, Berlin has plans to relocate military personnel from Mali to Niger.
Earlier it became known that on Friday the Malian authorities did not allow the arrival of the UN mission MINUSMA aircraft in the country, as a result of which the rotation of the Bundeswehr military was impossible.
Earlier this week, a representative of the German Foreign Ministry, Christian Book, visited Mali to discuss this issue. The publication notes that the Malian side then announced the imminent resumption of military rotation.
On Thursday, German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht received similar assurances during a telephone conversation with her Malian counterpart Sadio Camara. However, on Friday, the Malian authorities again refused to accept a flight from Germany.
The aggravation of the situation around Mali has continued since the coup in 2020, after which the countries of West Africa closed their borders, severed diplomatic relations and imposed economic sanctions against the country, which were supported by the United States and France.
In February, the Elysee Palace announced that France, a number of other European countries and Canada had decided to begin withdrawing their military from Mali. On May 2, the authorities in Bamako announced the unilateral decision of the Malian Government to denounce the agreement on defense cooperation linking France and Mali, as well as the agreement regulating the status of French forces and forces of European partners participating in the task force "Takuba".
