A German military plane with 75 troops on board was banned by Mali’s authorities late on Wednesday from overflying the country, the German Defence Ministry said.
The ban forced the plane to divert to Gran Canaria.
The transport plane was on its way from a German air base to a logistics hub in Niamey in Niger when it was told it could not enter Mali’s airspace, a spokesman for the Ministry said in Berlin.
Germany which has some 1,200 troops in Mali will by the end of May decide on whether to extend the military mission.
Berlin has voiced regarding the interim authorities’ failure to hold democratic elections next month as agreed following a 2020 military coup.
“When we were told that the elections are being postponed for five years, things are clearly not moving in the right direction,” German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said last week, adding she expected democratic progress if German troops were to stay in Mali.
The European Union has announced that it will impose sanctions on Mali in line with measures already taken by the ECOWAS grouping of West African states.
