German Defense Minister visits Mali ahead of troop withdrawal by May 2024

GAO (MALI), 13 Apr. (DPA/EP) –

The German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, visited the Gao military base in Mali this Thursday, and assured from there that the German government is working to fulfill its promise to withdraw all its soldiers from the country by May 2024. .

“This is not a family of five moving around in a van. This is a military logistics operation that is not done in passing,” he said from Gao, where the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is stationed.

The trip, which has not been announced for security reasons, led the minister to visit Niger the day before with the aim of meeting with regional leaders and learning first-hand about the current security situation in the two Sahel countries.

Germany announced in November its intention to end its military deployment to Mali by May 2024, following in the footsteps of Britain and France despite the fact that Africa’s Sahel region is seeing a resurgence in terrorist activity.

The gradual withdrawal of troops from Mali is yet another example of the reluctance of a large part of the international community both with Mali’s military junta and with its supposed alignment with the Wagner Group, an organization of Russian mercenaries.

Mali’s military junta, headed by Assimi Goita, faces increasing international isolation. In fact, the Ivory Coast also recently announced the withdrawal of its MINUSMA troops, a decision prompted in the Yamoussoukro case by the arrest in July of nearly 50 Ivorian soldiers at the Bamako airport.