Mali’s United Nations peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, is at the verge of disintegration as many countries have announced withdrawal of their troops from the mission, reported The Reuters.
Germany is the latest to have announced a withdrawal of its troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali by May 2024.
The government will propose to parliament that Germany’s commitment to the MINUSMA operation be extended “in May 2023 for the last time by a year, in order to bring this mission to a structured end after 10 years,” spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.
He said the country’s 1,000 peacekeepers will leave the Sahel nation as a fallout over the deployment of Russian mercenaries continues. The withdrawal would be an orderly departure as Mali plans to hold transitional elections in February 2024.
At least 1,400 German soldiers have been deployed as part of the UN mission in Mali since 2013. But the troops have been facing increasing difficulties in recent months, repeatedly having to suspend reconnaissance patrols after being denied flyover rights by the Malian junta.
There have been growing tension between Mali’s military junta and the UN mission following the alleged arrival of troops from Russia’s Wagner Group to bolster government forces.
“We want to leave Mali in an orderly way, without neglecting the transition process,” Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said in a speech at the Federal Academy for Security Policy.
She said the troops will remain on the ground beyond the election date but the withdrawal will begin in the summer of 2023. “
Lambrecht said flyover rights and Mali’s junta’s growing closeness with Wagner as two reasons for the withdrawal, but said it would be “irresponsible” to abandon the region.
She said the German army will also be involved in Niger, where officials have said they will not work with the Russian operatives.
