The EU mission in Mali, EUTM Mali, announced on Monday 13 April that seven people have tested positive for COVID-19.
A first case was announced on 8 April, followed by four others on 10 April and two on 13 April. The six people were isolated because they had been in close contact with the original case, the mission said.
The last two confirmed cases are in quarantine at headquarters, under medical supervision, and the persons with whom they had been in contact are in isolation “awaiting repatriation to their country of origin, for which preparations are under way”. According to the Director General of the EU Military Staff (EUMS), General Esa Pulkkinen, the first five COVID-19 positive soldiers were evacuated from Bamako to Europe on the evening of 11 April.
“Appropriate hygiene and protective measures are in place and each member of EUTM is checked daily for temperature”, the mission adds. According to EUTM Mali, the mission headquarters has been under quarantine since the initial onset of symptoms of the cases and, “in coordination with the Malian armed forces and in communication with the medical authorities”, all training activities have been suspended since the beginning of April.
This suspension “is a temporary and necessary precaution (...) to ensure the safety of the personnel of the Malian Armed Forces (MAF), the Malian premises and the personnel of EUTM Mali against the coronavirus”, the mission said in its communiqué, adding that its objective is to “resume all EUTM activities as soon as the situation allows us to do so in complete safety”.
The situation of EU military missions in the context of COVID-19 was discussed by EU Defence Ministers on 6 April (see EUROPE 12462/12). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)