After the attack on Bundeswehr soldiers in Mali, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) demanded that the UN stabilization mission MINUSMA be considered.
On Monday she said on Deutschlandfunk that “realistic political goals” had to be formulated for the mission.
In Afghanistan they were set too high and were actually inaccessible, said Kramp-Karrenbauer with a view to the mission in the Hindu Kush, from which the last German soldiers are to return in July.
At the same time, Kramp-Karrenbauer defended the Bundeswehr's presence in Mali. The international military on the ground is important for the reconciliation process. She admitted that the state structures in Mali were weakening and terrorist groups were acting more aggressively. It is not in the international interest that the Sahel region should completely fall victim to terrorists and criminal groups.
The Defense Committee of the Bundestag will deal with the attack on Wednesday morning in a special session at the request of the chairman of the left-wing parliamentary group, Alexander Neu. In an interview with the FAZ, Neu criticized the fact that the minister was not attending the meeting and would instead be on a business trip in America. In view of the numerous injured Germans, this is "irreverent". Kramp-Karrenbauer evades their political responsibility.
The defense policy spokeswoman for the FDP, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, wants to find out on Wednesday how an assassin could get so close to the Germans and whether a drone could have prevented the attack. 13 MINUSMA soldiers were injured in the suicide attack northeast of the city of Gao on Friday, twelve of them from Germany. Three Germans suffered serious injuries.