The German government has decided to withdraw troops from the United Nations peace-keeping force in Mali by the end of next year, a government source said, reported The France 24.
“By the end of 2023 at the latest, German soldiers are to end their involvement in the UN blue helmet mission MINUSMA,” the source said.
The German military troops have been deployed in Mali since 2013 with a presence of around 1,400 soldiers as part of the MINUSMA mission.
Britain and Ivory Coast had already said last week that they would be withdrawing their troops from the mission. France has also pulled out its forces from Mali in August, ending a more-than nine-year commitment in the fight against the jihadists.
The United Nations peace-making mission in Mali (MINUSMA), made up of nearly 12,000 peacekeepers, was intended to stabilize Mali and support its transitional government in organizing elections for 2024 after a military coup in 2020.
Notably, German forces have faced increasing difficulties in recent months. They have been repeatedly forced to suspend reconnaissance patrols after being denied flyover rights.
On Wednesday, the German defence ministry said Malian authorities had not granted the required permissions for its reconnaissance drones since October 11.
“Of course, this has an impact on the execution of the mission — it is considerably restricted,” a spokesman for the ministry said.
Mali has witnessed two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021. The army ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, angered at the government’s failures to control a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee from their homes.
The following year, the military forced out an interim civilian government and began to closely work with the Kremlin, acquiring Russia-made warplanes and helicopters and bringing in personnel described by the West as mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group.
