North Africa and the Sahel

Denmark has decided to repatriate its troops deployed in Mali, only one month after their arrival, following a new demand for their immediate withdrawal by the Malian junta, the head of Danish diplomacy announced on Thursday (27 January).

The foreign ministers of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad failed to agree on the terms for a joint ministerial summit with the European Union and have instead chosen to hold bilateral talks with EU High Representative Josep Borrel. The cancellation followed a series of coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, which has put into question the main European military tool in the Sahel region, the Takuba force. Task Force Takuba was created with much fanfare, and after a lot of French insistence, in March 2020 to help Mali and its neighbours in the West African Sahel fight militants linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, who have taken over large parts of their territory. 

The president of Burkina Faso – Roch Kaboré - has been overthrown by a group of soldiers in the third military coup in West Africa in eight months. In a televised broadcast on Monday coup leaders announced the closure of land and air borders from midnight, dissolved the government and the National Assembly and "suspended" the Constitution. A curfew was also decreed, from 9 pm to 5 am, throughout the country, "until further notice".