Denmark has decided to repatriate its hundred soldiers deployed in Mali due to a new request from the junta, announced the head of Danish diplomacy. “The ruling generals sent a clear message where they reaffirmed that Denmark was not welcome in Mali. We do not accept it and, for this reason, we have decided to repatriate our soldiers,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said after a meeting in parliament in Copenhagen. “We are here at the invitation of Mali. The putschist generals – in a dirty political game – withdrew this invitation […] because they don’t want a quick plan to return to democracy”he protested.
The junta in power in Mali since the 2020 coup had asked Denmark on Monday evening to withdraw its troops who had arrived the previous week as part of the European grouping of special forces Takuba, on the grounds that this deployment was “intervened without his consent”. Denmark had initially retorted to be present in the country following a “clear invitation” of the Malian regime and want “to clarify” the Malian demand. The Malian transitional government had reiterated “insistently” his request on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
In Mali, the putschists are under high diplomatic and economic pressure. The clear hardening of the economic and diplomatic sanctions adopted by ECOWAS against Bamako is supported by Paris, Brussels and Washington.