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Traffic light government worried: Germany is not allowed to fly 140 soldiers out of Mali - Russians are landing instead

2022-08-17T15:35:22.409Z


Traffic light government worried: Germany is not allowed to fly 140 soldiers out of Mali - Russians are landing instead Created: 08/17/2022, 17:22 By: Patrick Mayer Faced with Russian forces: German Bundeswehr soldiers in Camp Castor in Mali. © Kay Nietfeld/dpa Around 140 Bundeswehr soldiers are stuck in Mali after the French pulled out. Suddenly Russian troops approach. The traffic light fede


Traffic light government worried: Germany is not allowed to fly 140 soldiers out of Mali - Russians are landing instead

Created: 08/17/2022, 17:22

By: Patrick Mayer

Faced with Russian forces: German Bundeswehr soldiers in Camp Castor in Mali.

© Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Around 140 Bundeswehr soldiers are stuck in Mali after the French pulled out.

Suddenly Russian troops approach.

The traffic light federal government turns vehemently to the UN.

Munich/Gao - What's going on in Mali?

What is Moscow ruler Vladimir Putin planning in the West African country?

On Tuesday (August 16) - one day after the French withdrawal from the camp in Gao - German and British soldiers from the UN mission "Minusma" observed the arrival of apparently Russian forces at the airport in the Malian city.

An estimated 30 suspected Russian soldiers were accompanied by an EMB 314 Super Tucano and L39 Albatros ground attack aircraft.

Russian forces arrived in Gao: Traffic light government worried about Bundeswehr soldiers in Mali

The situation is apparently coming to a head after a planned flight by German Bundeswehr soldiers had to be stopped again.

Background: German mountain troops were to be transferred to Mali to protect Gao Airport.

It is the same airfield where Russian troops probably arrived.

And through which an exchange of the German contingent is supposed to take place.

However, it remained unclear on Wednesday (August 17) whether a rotation of German soldiers planned by the Bundeswehr for Thursday (August 18) would be given the green light by the military rulers in the capital Bamaku.

In the video: Bundeswehr is suspending operations in Mali until further notice

The Federal Foreign Office said that on Tuesday, 16 troop-contributing nations handed over a letter to the United Nations (UN) in New York, demanding that the UN "do even more to ensure that working conditions in Mali are now normalized again as quickly as possible".

A spokesman for the State Department said: "This is our top priority".

The Federal Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defense are "working together at full speed to ensure that these flights can be realized for our soldiers".

The arrival of Russian uniformed forces near the camp has "changed the mission environment."

UN mission in Mali: German flights prohibited - 140 Bundeswehr soldiers are stuck in Gao

As

Der Spiegel

writes, around 140 German soldiers are now stuck in the West African country, whose normal deployment time with the UN mission would have ended.

In the past few days, the Ministry of Defense had already announced that the German Bundeswehr would suspend - i.e. interrupt - its deployment in Mali until further notice.

The reason given was security concerns after the French withdrawal.

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On a UN mission in Mali: German Bundeswehr soldiers in Gao.

© IMAGO / photo library

The Malian transitional government under President Assimi Goïta, a military officer who seized power in May 2021, is now openly collaborating with Russia.

It was only in May that the German Bundestag increased the German contingent for the UN mission from 1,100 to 1,400 soldiers.

Around 1,000 Bundeswehr soldiers are currently said to be in Mali.

(pm/dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-17

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