Mali: German Bundeswehr soldiers depart as UN mission ends

The last German Bundeswehr soldiers deployed to the West African nation of Mali as part of the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping mission there have departed.

The MINUSMA acronym comes from the French version of the mission name: United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.

The mission — which the UN maintains was to support Mali's authorities as they sought to stabilize the country, protecting human rights and civilians under attack from radical Islamist groups operating in the country — lasted 10 years, having begun in 2013.

Mali's ruling military junta, which came to power in a 2020 coup, has deepened ties with Russia since taking over the country, while at the same time breaking with France and demanding the UN peacekeeping mission depart, despite the ever-present threat posed by Islamist militants. 

Mali points finger at UN troops, calls them 'part of the problem'

The withdrawal of UN forces has caused concern among some observers who fear an intensification of clashes between armed groups operating in the country.

Mali's foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, said that rather than adequately adjusting to the security situation in Mali, the UN mission and its soldiers had become "part of the problem." 

A UN report published in May, however, documented allegations that Malian soldiers and fighters from Russia's mercenary Wagner Group had killed hundreds of civilians in the country last year.

The UN officially ended its mission with a special ceremony in the capital, Bamako, on Monday. In all, some 53 countries participated in MINUSMA.

"We are leaving proud of what we have been able to achieve, but also clear-sighted about the limits of our action," said MINUSMA leader El Ghassim Wane.

Wane said a "liquidation phase" involving the handover of equipment to Mali's military authorities will commence after withdrawal has been completed on January 1, 2024.

Bundeswehr's second-largest foreign deployment

Germany deployed a total of 20,000 soldiers over the course of the peacekeeping mission — representing the second-largest foreign deployment of Bundeswehr troops behind the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Germany's DPA news agency reported that on Monday the last 160 of Germany's roughly 1,000-soldier peacekeeping contingent were still in Mali. Another 120 were said to be in neighboring Niger — which is also now run by a military junta that also came to power in a coup earlier this year.

The soldiers, who departed the Bundeswehr's Camp Castor field barracks in the city of Gao on Tuesday, will reportedly have a layover on the Atlantic coast before returning to Wunstorf Air Base in the German state of Lower-Saxony later in the week.

Camp Castor had served as base camp for Germany's UN troops for the duration of the mission.

During the 10-year MINUSMA mission, the UN maintained a roughly 15,000 member contingent of soldiers and police in Mali. Some 180 UN peacekeepers lost their lives over that period, killed mainly by jihadist terror groups with ties to al-Qaeda or the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) group.

Mali was one of the Bundeswehr's deadliest deployments, with two German pilots killed there in a 2017 helicopter crash, and 12 injured in a 2021 suicide bomb attack.

The Bundeswehr says a convoy transporting military hardware back to Germany is currently stuck in customs at the Mali-Niger border. Other hardware left at Camp Castor is to be transported back to Germany via private contractor.    

js/ab (AFP, dpa)