Maas at the Bundeswehr in Mali: Fear of a second Afghanistan

The steel entrance to Camp Gecko is completely destroyed. Colonel Holger Bonnen points to a black spot on the ground and a crater in front of it. "The car with the first assassin came to a halt here, the second car exploded out there," he says.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wants to know what happened four days ago in the camp of the EU training mission EUTM in Mali. Around 400 soldiers are stationed in Koulikoro, of which 160 are German. They were all awakened from sleep at 3 o'clock in the morning of Sunday night.

"I have experienced such an explosive power for the first time," says Captain Stefan. One may not write his full name, emphasizes the adjoining press officer. Since the attack, increased precautions apply. Captain Stefan has been in Koulikoro since December, having previously been to Afghanistan several times for the Bundeswehr. "We have become more attentive," he says.

Maas is being led through the warehouse, windows have been shattered everywhere, doors have been unhinged, cars have been damaged. "The destruction is significantly greater than I have imagined," says the SPD politician. Part of the steel entrance gate flew tens of feet and landed in the middle of the camp next to a classroom pavilion for the Malian soldiers. Nobody was hurt because no one worked in the office buildings opposite the entrance gate at the time.

Anyway, a good portion of luck was part of the terrorists' failure to get into the camp. The two vehicles had each charged 500 kilograms of explosive. The first assassin got stuck with his car on a bump. He was to blast the way for the second vehicle, but the blue barrels on the back did not explode. The assassin in the second vehicle, which was originally intended to blow up in the camp, ignited his charge at the entrance gate. The other fighters standing behind them with bazookas and machine guns were no longer able to storm the camp.

A new dimension of terror in Africa

Over the past few days, experts have analyzed the explosive and the procedure. The result: Terrorists in Mali have not yet approached foreign soldiers in such a professional manner. "Obviously, the form of terror, as we know them from the Middle East and Afghanistan, here to," summarizes the FDP member of the Bundestag Maria Strack-Zimmermann, who had visited together with four other members of the Defense Committee Camp Gecko the day before Maas , "So far this phenomenon did not exist in Africa."

The Jama'at Nasr al-Islam Wal Muslim (JNIM) confessed to the attack. It is a regional network of several terrorist groups with close ties to al-Quaida. On the Internet, JNIM published a letter of acceptance. "Through God-given success and grace, a JNIM unit has succeeded in launching an attack on the Koulikuru military camp in the capital, Bamako, Mali on the morning of Sunday."

The worsening security situation in the Sahel region ran like a red thread through the Federal Foreign Minister's visit to West Africa. During a visit to the neighboring Burkina Faso police academy, two mayors and a governor from the Mali border region spoke of the explosive mix of ethnic conflict, crime and terrorism.

At six in the evening the citizens are entrenched

"Our job is for people to work every day, but for security reasons we need to close markets," said Sié Sou, governor of the Boucle du Mouhoun region. "There is only stress and anxiety, because the population has the impression that the state is not present." "There is only fear," confirmed Souhaibo Dicko, mayor of the municipality of Diguel. "We have no police, no gendarmerie and no army, and everyone gets locked up at 6 pm".

In order to improve the security situation, the international community has been increasingly active in the Sahel region for several years. In addition to the UNO mission Minusma and the EU training mission in Mali, the international community is providing a lot of money to support the establishment of a "Force Conjointe" of the G5 states Chad, Niger Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. However, the task force is hardly progressing.

The states concerned, and also many donor countries, are in serious default with their financial commitments. It is also questionable whether the 5000-man troop is even able to cope with the enormous task of fighting cross-border terrorism in the desert region. There are also reports of human rights violations. In May 2018, G5 soldiers arbitrarily shot and killed twelve people in a market square in northern Burkina Faso after one of their soldiers was killed.

Does the Bundeswehr need more money for foreign missions?

In Koulikoro, on the fourth day after the attack, the training of the Malian security forces continues as if nothing had happened. But at the same time it is now being discussed how the security of German soldiers can be better guaranteed. Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has long been demanding more money for the Bundeswehr and refers to the coalition agreement.

Maas supports this demand - even if that would bring him one or the other discussion with his party colleague, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. "The Bundeswehr has been saved for far too long," he says after visiting Camp Gecko. "This must not be at the expense of the safety of our soldiers abroad."

A scenario such as in Afghanistan, where the security situation is increasingly deteriorating and the Bundeswehr has been stationed for almost twenty years, does not see Maas in Mali yet. But he can not rule it out. "We do not want to hope it takes that long," he says. The aim is to enable the local security forces to organize themselves. "But it will not be overnight."