In the future, should a Sahel country hosting European military support start flirting with Russia, Europe’s preparedness to leave will be a proven fact
Theodore Murphy comments on Germany’s decision to withdraw its troops from the UN mission in Mali by May 2024
The Kremlin has put the Europeans in a quandary: staying in Mali is becoming increasingly difficult
Where Europe takes on peacekeeping in Africa, the Kremlin uses tension to push its way to the front. This has consequences for Berlin politics, writes Theo Murphy.
French forces eliminated a significant number of jihadist fighters and leaders, operating under incredibly difficult circumstances and at high risk
The difficulties Europe and in particular France have faced in reining in jihadist groups in the Sahel has provided an opportunity for Russia to expand its security cooperation, particularly in Mali
It puts the Member States of the EU into a bit of a difficult situation because they took a very aggressive stance against the deployment of troops to Mali
[…] Malian democracy and Malian politics was being built around clientelism, patronage networks and this kind of consensus politics
Andrew Lebovich believes that the rosy analysis of democracy in Mali was always incomplete because it missed what was happening under the surface
