Credit:  Federalforeignoffice / Germany Foreign Minister Heiko Maas meets Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Alpha Barry on arrival in capital city Ouagadougou Feb. 26, 2019 /© Xander Heinl/photothek.net

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Germany Foreign Minister Heiko Maas embarked on a tour of West Africa this week as cross-border organized crime and Islamic terror attacks threaten the region.  Mass’ first stop was in Freetown, Sierra Leone Monday Feb. 25, 2019 where he lauded the country as a good role model for other African nations due to its political stability. Mass then visited Burkina Faso on Tuesday to be followed with a visit to Mali on Thursday. 

“I am traveling to West Africa today, and will be visiting three countries that enjoy the support of the international community in the particular challenges they face. Twenty years after the end of the civil war and following a successful UN mission, Serra Leone is a country stands on its own two feet and is shaping its future. In Mali and Burkina Faso, instability and conflict are currently giving us cause for great concern.”

Germany Foreign Minister Heiko Maas statement Feb. 24, 2019. 

Credit: Credit:  Federalforeignoffice / Foreign Minister Heiko Maas meets the president of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré  Feb. 26, 2019 /© Xander Heinl/photothek.net

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office stated that the conflicts in the neighboring countries of Mali and Niger are at risk of spilling over into Burkina Faso, with terrorist attacks, cross-border organized crime, and tensions along ethnic lines threatening the country’s stability.

To that end, Maas is offering a package of aid totaling 46 million euros ($52 million) to Burkina Faso.

“The measures are intended to support Burkina Faso’s efforts to stabilize and secure its inadequately controlled border regions and to improve the livelihoods of the population living there in the long term,” according to a statement for the German Federal Foreign Office.

Three Guinean United Nations Peacekeepers Killed In West Africa Mali

Three UN peacekeepers from Guinea  were killed last Friday near west African nation Mali’s capital city Bamako. It was the second deadly attack on UN peacekeepers in Mali in the past 5 weeks. On Jan. 20, 2019, ten peacekeepers from Chad were killed in a suspected Islamist attack in northern Mali.