Sun 18 September 2022:
Due to a lack of overflight permission Germany‘s UN-sanctioned military mission in Mali has again been forced to suspend its operations, a spokesperson for the Bundeswehr said on Saturday, DPA reported.
German operations in Mali are no longer taking place as permission for landing and overflights for medical evacuations have been suspended, a spokesperson for the Bundeswehr’s Operations Command told dpa on Saturday.
The Malian government has repeatedly refused to grant Germany’s military contingent to the UN mission in the country the necessary overflight rights for troop rotation.
Berlin suspended its military mission in Mali last month amid a similar dispute with Bamako over airspace, halting transport flights and reconnaissance operations.
The Bundeswehr was ultimately granted the necessary authorizations for the first half of September, but the permits were not extended upon their expiry on Friday, according to Operations Command.
Tensions have risen between Mali’s military rulers and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA), a peacekeeping force established to boost security after the Tuareg Rebellion of 2012, an early stage of the ongoing armed conflict in the country.
Mali, which has seen three military coups since 2012, has been led since the army’s most recent seizure of power last year by a transitional military government that is believed to enjoy close ties to Russia.
Mali’s military government, which has been in power since 2020, has brought in Russian operatives it describes as military trainers.
Western countries describe them as mercenaries from the pro-Kremlin Wagner group.
In April, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said about 300 people, most of them ethnic Fulanis, were killed in Moura in central Mali in March by Malian forces “or associated foreign fighters” – a veiled reference to suspected Russian operatives.
Mali’s army said that it killed 203 “militants” in Moura.
