The German government reported this Wednesday of the “alleged presence of uniformed Russian forces” in the Malian city of Gao just after the departure this Monday of the last French soldiers of the anti-jihadist operation Barkhane.
From that moment on, such a Russian presence was detected in this city in northern Mali, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said during a regular press conference.
Gao is home to a contingent of German soldiers, not far from the former French-occupied base. A Russian presence in this area “would change the environment of the mission,” this spokesman warned, without further details.
Berlin in contact with the United Nations
The German ambassador to Mali has been in direct contact with the Malian foreign minister on this issue, the spokesman said. The German government is also in contact with the United Nations, he added.
Berlin has particular “knowledge” of the presence of a plane, which could have been delivered to Mali by Russia and which was in service on Monday at Gao airport.
“We have information that around 20 to 30 people, who cannot be attributed to the Malian armed forces, were seen in a hangar loading and unloading this plane,” said a spokeswoman for the German Defense Ministry during this press conference, specifying that these elements were the subject of an “in-depth examination”.
Rupture after nine years of French presence
It is an “L-39 type ground combat and training aircraft”, delivered by Russia to the Malians, underlines the German army in a letter addressed to the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees of the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and revealed on Tuesday by the weekly Der Spiegel.
Relations between the Bamako junta and France, the former colonial power, have brutally soured in recent months, especially since the arrival in Mali of paramilitaries from the Russian private security group Wagner, pushing the two countries to break after nine years of uninterrupted French war. presence to fight against the jihadists.
Relations between Mali and the UN, whose peacekeepers have been present on Malian territory since 2013, have also deteriorated in recent months.
Source: BFM TV
