DAKAR (Reuters) -Sweden’s ambassador to Bamako, Kristina Kuhnel, has been ordered to leave the West African Sahel nation within 72 hours, Mali’s foreign ministry said on Friday, because of what it called a “hostile” statement by a Swedish minister.
The diplomatic spat underscores the broader geopolitical shift occurring in the region as three junta-led states – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – pivot away from traditional Western allies towards Russia.
Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation and trade, Johan Forssell, said on Wednesday that the government had decided to phase out aid to Mali due to its ties to Moscow.
“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 said, commenting on a post on X which said Mali was cutting ties with Ukraine.
Ruled by a military junta since 2020, Mali has been battling ethnic Tuareg rebels in its north alongside Russian Wagner mercenaries after it cut military cooperation ties with Western powers including European Union countries.
Since then, relations between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and Western powers have deteriorated as the three turn to Russia for support.
Sweden had decided in June to close its embassy in Mali’s capital Bamako by the end of the year, according to a statement on the foreign ministry’s website.
Forsell’s spokesperson said on Friday the decision to halt and out phase development aid was taken in December and that humanitarian assistance would continue.
The Swedish foreign ministry had no immediate comment.
Last week, Mali cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine over a diplomat’s comments suggesting that Kyiv had provided help to Tuareg rebels who claimed to have killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry later said there was no evidence Kyiv had played any role in fighting and called Mali’s decision short-sighted and hasty.
(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian; Additional reporting by Fadimata Kontao in Bamako, and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm; Editing by Giles Elgood and Toby Chopra)
