Soldier training: Federal government confirms end of training mission in Mali

The Federal Government has confirmed the end of the EUTM training mission in the West African crisis state of Mali, which has already been decided by the EU.

If this continued, "well-trained Malian soldiers" could "commit terrible human rights violations" together with Russian forces, said Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) on Wednesday at the cabinet meeting in Meseberg, Brandenburg.

Therefore, the mission will be discontinued.

"We can no longer support such a system with a training mission," said Lambrecht.

The United Nations was also not allowed to secure evidence to document human rights violations in Mali.

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had already announced the end of the EU-led mission EUTM in April.

In Mali, around 300 German soldiers recently trained Malian army members to fight militias and terrorist groups.

There is a completely different situation in Niger, Lambrecht said.

There the government was "very clearly stated that they do not want to work with Russian forces".

That is why the training will be continued as part of the "Gazelle" mission.

This should continue until the end of this year.

"After that we have to see how we can continue to support Niger in this fight against terrorism."

Lambrecht said that Germany also wanted to continue participating in the UN mission Minusma in Mali.

However, there are conditions for this.

Lambrecht referred to the withdrawal of the French, who had previously managed the airport for the operation.

The safety of German soldiers can no longer be guaranteed as well as possible.

"That's why we can only continue this mission if the United Nations does its homework and continues to make these capabilities available," said Lambrecht.

There will be no “business as usual”.

An Islamist uprising movement began in Mali in 2012 and has since spread to the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso and Niger.

Several thousand soldiers and civilians have already been killed in the conflict and two million people have been displaced from their homes.

The poorly equipped army of the country, which has been led by a military government since 2020, has repeatedly been accused of human rights abuses.