The cooperation of the Russian mercenary group Wagner with Mali’s military junta has caused criticism in the West. As a consequence, France and Great Britain are withdrawing their soldiers from the West African country. According to insiders, Berlin is following the example.
The federal government is said to have agreed in internal consultations to end the deployment of the Bundeswehr in the West African crisis state of Mali. “By the end of 2023 at the latest, the German soldiers should stop their involvement in the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma,” government circles in Berlin said. A final decision on the continuation of the German mission in Mali is to be made next Tuesday at a top-level meeting attended by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht.
In the evening, however, several ministries denied that the government had already agreed in principle to a deduction in the coming year. The Foreign Office said that voting in the coalition was still ongoing and that no decision had yet been made. The Bundestag mandate for the deployment in Mali is currently valid until the end of May 2023. At the end of May this year, the Bundestag voted to extend it – but for the first time included a withdrawal clause in the mandate in the event that the safety of Bundeswehr soldiers in Mali can no longer be guaranteed .
At a UN ministerial meeting on peacekeeping in Seoul a good year ago, Germany promised to provide a helicopter unit for the transport and care of the wounded as part of the MINUSMA mission until 2024. The UN mission serves to protect the civilian population in Mali. It is considered to be the Bundeswehr’s most dangerous mission abroad at the moment. The Bundeswehr is currently involved with up to 1,400 soldiers in the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma, which has been stationed in Mali since 2013.
At the end of June, the UN Security Council extended the mandate for the mission, initially for a further year. A total of more than 17,550 soldiers, police officers, civilian employees and volunteers are deployed for MINUSMA. Chad, Bangladesh and Egypt provide the largest military contingents. However, various states have already withdrawn from the UN mission. On Monday Britain announced the withdrawal of its Minusma troops. France, as one of the most important participants, has already ended its mission.
Mali, with around 20 million inhabitants, has experienced three military coups since 2012 and is politically very unstable. A military government that has maintained close ties to Moscow and the Russian mercenary group Wagner has been in power since last year. European states criticize this. The work of the UN troops is difficult under the ruling military junta in Bamako.
