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German soldier in Mali (archive image)
Photo: SEYLLOU / AFP
With immediate effect, West African Mali is suspending the exchange of blue helmet soldiers as part of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA, in which the German armed forces are also involved.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that this also applies to rotations that have already been planned and announced.
The decision applies until the "organization of a meeting" between the Malian government and the Minusma peace mission, it said.
It was not announced when the meeting would take place.
The announcement came four days after Malian authorities arrested 49 Ivorian soldiers.
They later described the Ivorians as "mercenaries" who tried to overthrow the Malian military junta.
According to the Ivory Coast, the Ivorians were contractual partners who support the UN mission as so-called National Support Elements (NSE) with logistical tasks.
The Ivorians had flown into the country on a special plane as part of the fifth rotation of the NSE program and were arrested immediately after landing in Bamako.
Christine Lambrecht (SPD) criticized her arrest.
The defense minister called for the immediate release of the 49 soldiers from Ivory Coast.
German soldiers usually stay on site for four months
The deployment in Mali is currently the Bundeswehr's largest foreign deployment - and is also considered to be its most dangerous.
According to the Operations Command on Thursday, around 1,100 Bundeswehr soldiers are currently on site for the blue helmet mission.
A total of almost 13,300 peacekeeping troops are on site.
The personnel rotation is carried out permanently, as a rule the German soldiers are on site for four months and then return to Germany, said a spokesman.
Only this week, personnel were flown out of Mali.
The spokesman initially did not want to comment on the announcement by the Malian government.
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Mali has been plagued by jihadist violence for years.
An Islamist uprising began in the country in 2012 and spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Several thousand soldiers and civilians have already been killed in the conflict and two million people have been displaced from their homes.
Mali's poorly equipped army is repeatedly accused of human rights violations.
After military coups in Mali in August 2020 and May 2021, the West African country's relations with western countries like France and Germany have deteriorated significantly.
slu/AFP