Status: 02/17/2022 10:33 a.m
Doubts about the military operation in Mali have recently increased. Now France and its partners are actually ceasing their military missions. Plans for a withdrawal are already underway.
France, its European partners and Canada are withdrawing their troops from Mali. They announced this in a joint statement published by the Élysée Palace after consultations in Paris. The joint missions are scheduled to be completed by June of this year. It was said that the aim was to remain active in the Sahel zone.
Plans are to be drawn up by June 2022 on how to remain present in the region and above all in countries such as Niger and the Gulf of Guinea. The deduction concerns the French-led combat operation “Barkhane” and the military operation “Takuba”. 14 European countries and Canada are involved in the mission. Germany is not one of them.
Conflicts with the military junta
As a reason for the withdrawal, the statement refers to the increasingly difficult relationship with the military rulers in Mali. Among other things, they had decided to postpone the elections in the West African country to 2025. The military government has also hired Russian mercenaries and expelled France’s ambassadors.
French President Emmanuel Macron received around 15 African and European heads of state and government yesterday at the Elysée Palace to discuss a withdrawal from Mali. In view of the considerable tensions between the Malian military junta and the former colonial power France, everything pointed to a withdrawal of French soldiers in advance. There have been growing doubts about the sense of maintaining the commitment in Mali, it has been said in Paris for some time.
How are things going with German operations?
A number of armed groups are active in the Sahel region, which stretches south of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Some have pledged allegiance to the terrorist groups Islamic State (IS) or al-Qaeda. In addition to the anti-terrorist missions, the EU training mission EUTM and the UN stabilization mission Minusma, in which the Bundeswehr is involved with a good 1,350 soldiers, are also underway in Mali.
France’s decision is likely to have consequences for the continuation of the two German military operations. The current mandates for participation in EUTM and Minusma are valid until May 31, 2022. The federal government itself has not yet committed itself to continuing the military engagement.
Two billion euros cost
Both Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht recently questioned the continuation of the military operation. According to a spokeswoman for the Bundeswehr Operations Command, the mission has cost almost two billion euros so far.
Mali deployment costs at 2 billion – extension unclear due to instability
Kai Clement, ARD Berlin, 17.2.2022 · 09:03