LONDON, November 14 (DPA/EP) –

The British government announced on Monday its decision to withdraw peacekeeping troops in Mali despite the fact that the African Sahel region is becoming a scene of a resurgence of Islamic activity.

The Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, has confirmed that the British contingent of 300 troops, members of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), will leave the African country early.

“Responsibility for all this falls on Bamako. Two (state) coups in three years have undermined international efforts to promote peace,” the British representative said.

With this move, London follows steps previously taken by Paris, which had announced in February that its troops in Mali would move to Niger to continue their fight against jihadist activity in the region from there.

This decision is yet another example of the reluctance of much of the international community both with Mali’s military junta and with its alleged alignment with the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization.

For Heappey, the Wagner Group is linked to “massive human rights abuses”, making Bamako’s rapprochement with the organization “counterproductive to lasting stability and security in the region”.

“This government cannot deploy our nation’s military to provide security when the host country’s government is unwilling to work with us to provide lasting stability and security,” Heappey said.

Despite everything, the secretary of the Armed Forces, who relies on the Ministry of Defence, has stressed that the UK will continue to work closely with France and other allies to “balance” Britain’s deployments in the Sahel and West Africa.

London authorized in 2020 a troop destination to Gao, in eastern Mali, a gesture hailed by then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a demonstration that Great Britain can be a “force for good”. .