GERMAN MILITARY SUSPENDS OPERATIONS IN MALI: DEFENCE MINISTRY

Fri 12 August 2022:

The German defence ministry said Friday it had suspended most of its operations in Mali after the local military-led government denied flyover rights to a UN peacekeeping mission.

“The Malian government has once again refused to give flyover rights to a flight planned for today” for the rotation of personnel, a spokesman for the defence ministry said at a regular press conference. In response, Germany had decided to “suspend until further notice the operations of our reconnaissance forces and CH-53 transport flights”.

Deadliest attack

Meanwhile, a “complex and coordinated” weekend attack in Mali’s restive central region killed 42 soldiers, the country’s military government has said, sharply raising the earlier death toll of 17 soldiers.

The assault in the town of Tessit in the Gao region on Sunday was one of the deadliest in recent years for Mali’s security forces fighting armed groups in the region.

Violence has persisted in Mali for a decade, with the crisis triggered in 2012 when ethnic Tuareg separatists took control of the country’s north. That rebellion was hijacked by armed groups which in recent years have taken advantage of a security vacuum in the country’s sprawling central region bordering Burkina Faso and Niger, with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda offshoots stoking communal tensions over dwindling resources as they jockey for power.

The fighting has killed thousands of people and forced more than two million civilians to flee their homes.

The latest attacks come as France’s military, which has been active in Mali since 2013, is in its last phase of withdrawing from the country, a move that has further thrust the region’s security future into question. Mali’s military, meanwhile, has denied reports it has turned to Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to fill the void.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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