The rift between the West and the Junta governments in West Africa continues to widen with each passing day. The situation with Niger and the United States reflects this growing tension. Additionally, the soured relationship between France and Mali highlights the region’s frustration with Western methodologies.
Very recently, the tension between the European Union and Mali reached its breaking point with harsh decisions being made as a result.
According to the American news agency Reuters, the European Union disclosed its intent to pull out its military training mission from the West African country. The European bloc noted that its relationship with Mali had deteriorated to that extent.
A similar decision was taken in 2022 when the EU decided to suspend the program given Mali’s refusal to remain a part of the G5 Sahel.
The EU’s diplomatic service revealed that the mission would officially end on the 18th of May this year, after which the EU would terminate the program.
The mission has been in existence for a little over a decade and has seen the training of Malian armed forces and members of the G5 Sahel, a multinational counter-terrorism force.
After an evaluation of strategy and negotiations with the Malian authorities, the EU decided that it had taken the option not to extend the mission’s mandate, based on the “evolution of the political and security situation on the ground”.
August 2020 marked the beginning of military administration in Mali, which followed four years of eight coups around West and Central Africa, including those in Burkina Faso and Niger, two of its neighbors.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was overthrown on August 18, 2020, in a coup d’état led by Assimi Goïta, a group of Malian military commanders, on charges of corruption, a faltering economy, and insecurity.