It was recently the Bundeswehr’s most dangerous mission: For more than ten years, Germany tried to secure peace in Mali as part of the UN Minusma mission. The withdrawal was premature.
The last Bundeswehr soldiers who took part in the UN mission in Mali, West Africa, have landed back in Germany. The 304 soldiers flew from the Senegalese capital Dakar to Wunstorf near Hanover with two A400M military transporters and an A330MRTT.
There, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) received them in the presence of family members to honor their achievements.
In a shorter time than originally planned and under increasingly difficult conditions, the orderly withdrawal was a success, said Pistorius. “In the end, the political conditions in Mali simply no longer provided the conditions for a meaningful deployment. The withdrawal was therefore the logical and correct decision,” said the minister.
He emphasized that security in the Sahel region is crucial for the stability of all of Africa and has effects as far away as Germany. Countering terrorism, uncontrolled migration and the collapse of fragile states together with the EU and UN is therefore still the goal: “The Sahel is and will remain of central importance for us and for our allies in the future.”
Terrorist groups continue to spread in the Sahel region
The UN peacekeeping operation Minusma in Mali was created in spring 2013 to stabilize the country and help enforce a peace agreement between the government and rebels. However, Islamist terrorist groups are spreading again in the Sahel region, some of which are allied with Al-Qaeda and the terrorist group Islamic State. A conflict between Mali and separatist Tuareg rebels also threatens to break out again.
This summer, Mali’s military government nevertheless demanded the withdrawal of all around 12,000 UN soldiers after it expanded its cooperation with Russia. The UN Security Council then initiated the end of Minusma. Germany had already decided to end its participation. The withdrawal, which was actually planned by the end of May 2024, took months and was made more difficult by a military coup in neighboring Niger.
With the conclusion of Minusma, the Bundeswehr’s second major deployment outside Europe comes to an end after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The mission in Mali was recently considered their most dangerous mission.
Pistorius: “The situation in Mali was always dangerous”
“The situation in Mali has always been dangerous,” said Pistorius. More than 200 blue helmet soldiers died in the operation. There were also two German pilots. They died when their Tiger attack helicopter crashed in Mali. In addition, a total of 12 German soldiers were wounded in a suicide attack in 2021. According to the Bundeswehr, a total of around 20,000 German blue helmets have been deployed in the UN mission over the years.
For the withdrawal, approximately 1,000 containers of material were brought back to Germany by land, air and sea. These include around 120 vehicles, five CH-53 helicopters and four Heron 1 drones. According to Pistorius, material worth almost 300 million euros was brought out of the country. About a third of the material remained in Mali for economic reasons.
