COPENHAGEN: Denmark will close its embassies in Mali and Burkina Faso after a series of military coups over the past few years, the Danish Foreign Ministry said on Monday, as it formally launched a new strategy for its cooperation with the African continent.
Ruled by a military junta since 2020, Mali has been battling ethnic Tuareg rebels in its north alongside Russia’s Wagner mercenary group after it cut military cooperation ties with Western powers including EU countries.
Since then, relations between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and Western powers have deteriorated as the three turn to Russia for support.
Frustrations over authorities’ failure to restore security have contributed to coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, which the ministry said had created very limited room for maneuver in the Sahel region.
At the same time, the Danish ministry said it would open embassies in Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia, and increase its diplomatic workforce in its embassies to Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana.
Separately, at least 100 villagers and soldiers were killed in central Burkina Faso during a weekend attack on a village by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, according to videos of the violence analyzed by a regional specialist, who’s described the assault as one of the deadliest this year in the conflict-battered West African nation.
Villagers in the Barsalogho commune which is 80 kilometers from the capital city were helping security forces dig trenches to protect security outposts and villages on Saturday when fighters with the Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group invaded the area and opened fire on them, said Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, saying in a statement that it gained “total control over a militia position” in Barsalogho in Kaya, a strategic town security forces have used to fight off terrorists that have over the years tried to close in on the capital, Ouagadougou.
