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In a press release on August 26, 2024, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its withdrawal from two member states of the Alliance for the Sahel, Burkina Faso and Mali. The Danish Foreign Minister cited the coups that took place in these countries as the reason. The press release stated: “Due to the military coups that severely limit the possibility of action in the Sahel region, the embassies in Burkina Faso and Mali will be closed.”
Instead, Denmark intends to turn its attention to other countries in West Africa, Central Africa and North Africa. These countries are Senegal, Rwanda and Tunisia. Danish foreign affairs chief Rasmussen said that this repositioning is part of Denmark’s new engagement strategy with African countries. He clarified to the media: “Our goal is to be present where it makes sense, where we see potential and where we have clear interests for Denmark.”
Remember, on June 24, 2024, Sweden also announced that it would close its embassies in Bamako and Ouagadougou, while announcing the opening of a new embassy in Dakar to follow up on the situation in the Sahel and West Africa regions.
A few weeks ago, on August 9, Mali ordered Ambassador Christine Kunel to leave the country within 72 hours. Responding to an article about the deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Swedish Minister of International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Johan Fussell, was angry about the support given by the Assimi Goita country to Russia in the war between the two countries and Ukraine.
“We cannot receive hundreds of millions of crowns in development aid every year while supporting Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” he wrote on X.
Speaking to our newspaper Lefaso.net about the impending break in cooperation between Burkina Faso and Sweden, Stan Hagberg, the honorary consul of Burkina Faso in Sweden, expressed his opposition to the decision. “In fact, strictly speaking, Sweden has not decided to break off cooperation with Burkina Faso, because it is not a sudden break. On the other hand, the Swedish government has decided that there will be no more bilateral cooperation starting next year. The decision to start development cooperation with Burkina Faso is unfortunate and I think this decision by the Swedish government is wrong.”
Erwan Compaore
Lefaso.com
Source: Oriental Daily
Anadolu Agency
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