The Malian government has announced a tightening of controls on NGOs, their work, accounts and communications, both Malian and international.
Thus, each foreign organization will have to submit to monthly controls of its bank accounts, will have to present a monthly activity report and will have to justify all its communications with public bodies.
The Malian government itself had recently announced that it would not allow the activities of organizations and institutions financed by France.
«We have noted that the Malian government’s decrees in this regard are worrying and we have conveyed this to the Malian government agencies,» explained a German Foreign Ministry spokesman from Berlin.
A spokesman for the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Christian Klatt, said that «this is a further step towards closer monitoring of Malian and foreign organizations that usually defend the most basic democratic values».
Mali is ruled by a military junta, the third to stage a coup since 2012, and has severed its traditional relations with France to strengthen ties with Russia.
Germany has 1,100 military personnel deployed in the country, but they will soon return home after a worsening of relations with the government led by General Assimi Goita.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
