The Swedish minister’s “hostile” remarks have prompted Mali’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon Sweden’s ambassador to Bamako and urge him to leave the country within 72 hours.
Days after Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation and Trade, Johan Forssell, said that the government has chosen to gradually stop aid to Mali, the country made its move on Friday.
Forssell remarked on a post on X on Wednesday that stated Mali was severing connections with Ukraine. “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 commented.
According to a representative for Forsell, the decision to stop and phase off development aid was made in December, but humanitarian relief will still be provided on Friday.
A wider geopolitical change is taking place in the Sahel as three military-led regimes, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, are turning away from their traditional Western allies and toward Russia. This is highlighted by the diplomatic spat.
Due to the worsening security conditions in Mali, Sweden declared in June that it will close its embassy in Bamako by the end of 2024 and that it would continue to provide help to the region from Dakar, Senegal.
Armed organizations have been the source of unrest in Mali, rendering large areas of the nation ungoverned. Following a coup in 2020, the military of this West African nation has declared it a top mission to retake the entire nation from separatists and extremist groups associated with al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).
