Mali summoned the Spanish ambassador in Bamako last Friday after the declarations of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, saying that a NATO mission in the country “is not excluded”, as revealed by the head of Malian diplomacy.
“Today we summon the Spanish ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to strongly protest against these statements,” said Abdoulaye Diop during an interview on public television in the African country. The complaint of the Malian Transitional Government is based on these words of Albares alluding to a hypothetical action by NATO: “We cannot rule it out. The issue did not come up in the Madrid talks, because it is a summit that defines, so to speak, NATO’s framework of action. If it was necessary and if there was a threat to our safety, of course we would.”
“These statements are unacceptable, unfriendly, serious” because “they tend to encourage aggression against an independent and sovereign country,” said the Malian foreign minister. “The minister must remember that the current situation of insecurity and the spread of terrorism in the Sahel is linked above all to NATO’s intervention in Libya, the consequences of which we are still paying,” he stressed.
“Spain did not request during the NATO summit or at any other time an intervention, mission or action of the Alliance in Mali”, the Spanish embassy in Mali reacted yesterday in a press release. Spain “will continue to develop a friendly and peaceful relationship with Mali,” the statement added.
Instability in the Sahel area is one of the great concerns of countries such as France and Spain itself, and NATO has recently cited this area as being of “strategic interest”.
Mali has plunged into a deep security, political and humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of independence aspirations in the north and the outbreaks of jihadist insurgency, which have ended up spreading to neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger.
The relations of the European countries with the current leaders of the country have deteriorated to such an extent that the forces of a dozen European countries, led by France under the umbrella of the Takuba operation, have begun to withdraw this week. It is about 1,000 elite troops who stop fighting terrorism there. The European Union mission, training the Malian army, in which Spain does participate, unlike in Takuba, and which it leads together with Germany, is also in the phase of possible withdrawal.
The international mission that, however, has renewed its mandate is that of the United Nations, under the name of Minusma. The operation of this mission is also the object of conflict between the Government of Bamako and the EU.
The European Union regrets that Mali opposes the freedom of movement of Minusma in the field of human rights, even more so in a context of exponential increase in human rights violations and abuses in recent months.
The EU urges the State of Mali to act in accordance with the mandate of MINUSMA and to carry out effective investigations into any complaint of human rights violations, regardless of who the alleged perpetrator is.
