Germany ends the Bundeswehr's participation in the "Atalanta" anti-piracy mission in the Horn of Africa.
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defense said on Friday in Berlin that the federal government would not submit an application to the Bundestag for an extension of the mandate for the EU mission.
This means that the mandate for the German mission expires on April 30th.
However, participation in enforcing an arms embargo off the Libyan coast should continue, albeit without further training for the Libyan coast guard.
The EU mission "Atalanta" off the coast of Somalia has been running since 2008. At times there have been hundreds of pirate attacks on merchant ships in the region every year.
The task of "Atalanta" is to protect the busy trade routes in the region and also to prevent attacks on ships with aid supplies from the World Food Program.
The Bundeswehr mandate was last extended two years ago.
It provided for the use of a maximum of 300 soldiers.
With the decline in piracy in the region, the Bundeswehr also scaled back its involvement in Atalanta.
Participation in an EU mission in the Mediterranean, on the other hand, is to be extended by another year, but the training of the Libyan coast guard is to be ended.
As the German government writes in an application, the EUNAVFOR MED Irini operation aims to enforce the United Nations arms embargo on Libya and to help stop human smuggling and illegal oil exports.
The training of the Libyan Coast Guard and Navy should no longer be part of the mandate.
According to this, the Bundeswehr should take on tasks such as maritime surveillance and reconnaissance and, as before, be able to send up to 300 soldiers.
The German government justifies its participation in the mission with the aim of “contributing to a stabilizing effect on Libya” and to the country’s UN-led peace process.
The mandate is limited to the end of April 2023, the deployment-related costs are estimated at around 21.8 million euros.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, various Security Council resolutions and decisions of the Council of the European Union are cited as the legal basis.
In recent years, the EU has also supported the establishment of the Libyan Coast Guard with millions of dollars.
The ships bring the people back to Libya.
There is always criticism of this, for example reports of the torture and exploitation of migrants in the camps have been circulating for years.