special every thursday on d w ah ah, this is the w news live from berlin. france is withdrawing its military mission from molly. the statement comes ahead of a rare summit of african union and european union leaders. the french with brawl could have knock on effects, all other foreign troop deployment in molly, and the why the saw held. also on the program, russia publishes more images of what it says of times. returning from drills on the border with ukraine, bought us satellite images,

show more troops and equipment being deployed to the reach and at the bay ging winter olympics will join the canadian celebrations on the ice as national pride is restored. ah, i'm good, have others? well come to the program, france has announced that it will withdraw its troops from marlyn, ending a 9 year mission against islamist militants, a joint statement by france. it's european partners and canada said, and he, terrell operations in the western african nation would seize by june. the issue is likely to dominate a red summit between the african union and the european union in brussels to day w, jack park has more on the strained relations between france and molly.

after a 2nd military coup in may 2021, which followed one in august 2020 state funerals like this, conducted by the military discount is the underlying instability in molly. until now, france has retained a military presence of over 4000 troops in the sal region, but as long wanted to reduce that numbers, and especially to move them out of the former french colony of molly. after the new cooley does expelled the french ambassador. since 2013, the european union has provided a contingent of 1100 troops, a separate mission known as the e. u. t. m. to train molly's armed forces. the european commission says the plan remains to keep the e u mission going for now, the situation of the u t. m, for the moment are there, they are present in my li, our position is that we do want to stay engaged in the sale. we do want to stay

engaged in money. having said that, no, not at any price from the european perspective, there is another military complication. the arrival of a 1000 mercenary soldiers of the russia linked wagner battalion in marley and recent crews in bikini faso guinea and sudan rule providing a less stable backdrop with african leaders. joining a ras summit with the e u. the leaders of military current won't be attending the a u. e u summit here in brussels. and while security is a crucial issue on the table for the leaders, this is the 1st time they got together all together. in this format. since 2017, they wanted to talk about vaccines and investment opportunities and they will, but the molly issue is likely to pull focus on the ground. the people of molly are also questioning european motives for the true deployments. according to some experts, there is an understanding by the population, but also independent observers that this is not the objective is not security on me,

or that this idea does conceptualization of security is also married with conceptualization around migration management. on top of the european missions, there's also a un mission running concurrently in molly, the country hasn't really known peace or stable self governance in over a decade. and for more on this, i'm now joined by my colleague harrison williams from d w. africa, harrison as well as france, canada and some other european countries, also withdrawing troops from mali. y a r a doesn't open countries. there is a bus that was us experience. so for me, it looks like, yeah, they're reacting to their what the current government once. and yeah,

because in this context, if the government decided to work closely with russia like, you know, when i did context or, or you can countries or funds to, to continue studying it badly. so where does this leave the fight against the heart? isn't molly? and in the whole region. yeah, that's, that's the big question which remains to be seen on the one hand. we have, we have seen the russian scenario i'm hoping in bali, so they're also actively engaged in the fight against the judy. as you're seeing bias reports of some other things, i want to be acting to do this issue. for example, another provider or saying that no one should continue to be binding because it's not only that you you to mission which is

a monday. but also there is another mission which is for, you know, it's not which is also embodied. so maybe that could be a possibility that other missions would continue to stay. molly, if you are in one and the u. t. m, as we apply to the report that they want to continue saying, well today there is a some of the rest, some it's between leaders of the african union and the european union in brussels. how could both partners benefit from this summit? yeah, so many issues which i mean, different interests from the european side, european side that you it's always consigned with, with my question issues with the question of good governance. and of course the, so this is very, very important for european documents,

but in the engagement with africa to ensure that. but my question is not, i mean, even my grandson, moving from african countries, 2 european countries on the sides, african countries. i've also different interests are they want trade, they want to do a development 8, but based on a ship or a partnership basis. so all of these are issues which are going to be discussed in the summer, and especially now it could be fun. it also bring 2 blocks together and union because they regarded as a blog and it is being got, it is a blog. so, and it's a, remember recently, in the beginning of 2021 african countries, a african continental preacher area. so this is also like an issue where african countries would like to discuss with partners on how they they

can continue trading fairly with each other happening within the union with the original positions. and this has been considered very, very tricky, especially with coming out with the sub regional groups. so the 5 issues which are going to be discussed and they're very important why african countries i was really my that from the w africa. thank you very much. thank you. germans answer all of shots and u. s. president joe biden have called on russia to take real steps towards de escalation on ukraine's border as follows, a phone call between the 2 western leaders to discuss the crisis on europe's eastern flank. russia published more images that it says show its withdrawing some of its forces from the border, but the u. s. and nato say they've detected no signs of

a real russian troop withdrawl natal chief. yet stoughton back describe tensions with russia in eastern europe as the new normal for more and this led sir bring ended up your correspondent, nick connelly in the northern ukrainian city of hockey. if near the russian border, nick 1st of all, but we are getting reports about mortar fire in the eastern part of ukraine a and that are coming that they are coming from a russian backed separatist group. what more do you know? well get this is in a place called anita landscape. place. i've been several times that is right in the far east of ukraine on the border with russia, but also with that separatist control territory. we've heard that a, a kindergarten was damaged, but there no reports of children being injured for now, local residents were taken to bomb shelters by the military to civilians received some kind of m. i had some confusion that were, had some health issues,

but nothing, no casualties. for now, this is part of the normal route you people living in east in ukraine, that is a voted fact well enough during this escalation, recent weeks, the fighting there isn't. ukraine has actually been comma and quieter than normal, but shooting soldiers dying and civilians also getting some damage that of what she has been the picture here over the past that years. so we're getting very conflicting signals about the russian troop withdrawals. how are they being interpreted there where you want was extraordinary, isn't it? so you had that news, those press announcements from the criminal saying that they were removing, taking troops out of an ex crimea. but the weird thing is that those trips that when i ex crimea their basic normal place to be located is along ukraine's border anyway. so it's not as if this is tripled up. it's actually being reduces just being spread more evenly and in different locations. the troops that were brought in from the far east of russia from siberia, that net worth thousands of miles away from ukraine prior to this build up. they

are not moving anywhere. and we need, we've had news from western it as it is today, that russia is indeed increasing it's trick numbers at different points along that border. mechanically they're corresponded in the northern ukrainian city of hockey's in ukraine. thank you. nick. some sports news. national pride has been restored in canada with the women's hockey team beating team usa to claim the gold medal. once again, marie phillips, paula scored twice and assisted on another gold 30 year old team captain proved to be one of canada's best players on the ice. canada has dominated this events since it was 1st introduced in 1998 winning a metal on every occasion with a total of 5 goals and 2 syllables. as go to a d w's boards, jonathan crane. he is covering the beijing winter olympics for us and joins us from there. not all the action has been on the slopes today. a chinese official for the

beijing games took the microphone to discuss china's human rights record. tell us more. yes, quite an extraordinary moment. really in the daily briefing, these briefings happen every day as the name suggests, and usually the chinese side isn't quite reserved. they tried to stick to the sports avoiding answering any questions about some of the thorny issues. but today, yeah, jerome, who is some that are organizing committee? jump in really? yeah, there was a question about taiwan participation. nice. and then picks that competing under the name chinese type pe. she wasn't even asked the question herself, and then she jumped in by saying that it only one china in the world. taiwan is an i'm the vital parts of china. so really following china is one china line. and then there was another question about alleged for the labor of weekends in john province, and she called that life and the false information out,

of course. so this kind of flies in the face of the i hope to keep the olympics politically neutral. in d d c is kind of used that as cover to avoid talking about such things that miss. yeah. and really blew that out of the water today. and the interesting thing was it was all i'm prompted. she didn't need to say it and you know, false. i'm trying to keep these things quiet is now blown out into the open. it's kind of a goal. some people are saying, ready? so if a one comes from us to the next, will we see the final chapter of the camilla value of a saga today? it won't be the final chapter, but it's that lee an important chapter coming up the eva is going to go metal in the women's individual figure skating event. but she does so with this doping cloud hanging over her because she found a drug test in december. she's being allowed to compete though, because a court road that she shouldn't be provisioning suspended. but if she got from the podium, if she went to go metal, that won't be a metal ceremony. and she'll have an asterix next to her name. so we won't find out

for sure whether she doubts or not until the whole case is head and courts, or it could still be that she comes away from these olympics and meadows. but that then taken away from her isolated today. talk about metals, briefly give us an update about any sports occurrences at the games. well, it's been a very disappointing day again for mckayla schiffron get hot in the notes in the sea for combined event that she was in a good position after the downhill portion. but again, crashed out in this fall and that's his 3rd d n. f did not finish in these games. he says, after we said about 60 percent of her career d, n s have come here at the olympics and she called about mind boggling that a very disappointing day again for mckayla schiffer who is a real metal hype for the united states, corresponded in jonathan crane there from the badge in winter olympics. thank you very much. something as it from me and the news team

a for now don't go away. the up next is the business news with daniel winter here in the studio. this, of course, 20 more world news analysis and debate as well as sports and business news for you on our website d w. gov. com. i'm gab alphas in berlin. thanks so much. ah ah ah, they've had no peace for for decades. the people of iraq country is devastated and there's no end to the violence how

did it come to this.