Due to tensions with the junta, Berlin confirms the withdrawal of its troops by May 2024

Berlin in turn chooses to leave Mali. The German government on Wednesday endorsed the withdrawal by May 2024 of its troops engaged in the Minusma blue helmets mission due to tensions with the ruling junta in Bamako.

Meeting in the Council of Ministers, the government of Olaf Scholz confirmed that the German soldiers of the Bundeswehr would gradually leave the country over the next twelve months. This decision to withdraw from Mali was announced by Berlin at the end of 2022.

The 185 dead of the Minusma since 2013

Germany considers that the conditions are no longer met to continue to participate in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (Minusma), in which it has participated since 2013. With approximately 12,000 soldiers deployed in Mali, it is the UN mission with the most casualties in the world in recent years. Since its creation in 2013, 185 of its members have died in hostile acts. With around a thousand soldiers, Germany is the largest Western contributor to this difficult UN mission to help stabilize this country.

Mali has indeed been plagued by jihadist spread and violence of all kinds since the outbreak of rebellions in the north of the country in 2012. The colonels who took power by force in 2020 pushed the alliance to break military with France and its partners in 2022, and turned to Russia.

Enhanced cooperation with Niger

“Whether we like it or not, what is happening in the Sahel affects us,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. This is why Berlin intends to stay in the Sahel region, and reorient its commitment in the areas of security in Niger, Mauritania and the Gulf of Guinea states, she said.

To maintain pressure on jihadist groups active in the Sahel region, several countries wish to strengthen cooperation in particular with Niger, considered a more reliable partner than Mali. The German government, for example, decided in April to send 60 soldiers to this country to take part in a new mission led by the European Union.

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