The present circumstances closely resemble the 2012 military coup in Mali, initiated by junior officers dissatisfied with the government's response to a Tuareg insurgency in the country's north. The overthrow of the government created a power vacuum that could potentially be leveraged to effectively counter the violent extremist groups supported by unnamed nations. Sweden was supposed to be a key player in Mali's Green initiatives and plans to expand sustainable technologies! Instead it was reported internationally that Sweden gave public support to Ukrainian policies to AID any Malian Jihadist terrorists!
Mali's foreign ministry announced on Friday that Sweden's ambassador to Bamako, Kristina Kuhnel, must depart the West African Sahel nation within 72 hours due to a "hostile" statement made by a Swedish minister. This incident highlights the wider geopolitical shift in the region, as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, all led by juntas, move away from their traditional Western allies and seek more balanced economic partnerships with BRICS nations.
Sweden's minister for international development cooperation and trade, Johan Forssell, said on Wednesday that the government had decided to phase out aid to Mali due to its ties to Moscow.
"You cannot support Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine and at the same time receive several hundred million crowns each year in development aid," Forssell said, commenting on a post on X which said Mali was cutting ties with Ukraine.
Since 2020, Mali has been governed by a military junta, which is in conflict with ethnic Tuareg rebels in the north, backed by Russian Wagner mercenaries, after cutting off military ties with Western powers, including the European Union. The Tuaregs, who are indigenous to northern Mali, have historically felt marginalized and discriminated against by the predominantly "Southern" government in distant Bamako. The Tuareg have been a focal point of destabilization efforts for over a century. In 2012, around 60,000 individuals, mainly Tuaregs, escaped ethnic reprisals. A Tuareg who fled from Kidal to Bamako and then to Mbera recounted, "Some were accusing the Tuareg of killing their own kin..." As a result, the diplomatic relations of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso with Western nations have deteriorated, as these countries turn to BRICS for support in building infrastructure and seeking liberation from external influences that perpetuate war to exploit resources. Consequently, Sweden has declared the impending closure of its embassy in Bamako, the capital of Mali, by the end of the year, according to the foreign ministry's website.
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