The Chancellor's visit came at the right time.

Last Friday, the German Bundestag decided to end the Bundeswehr's participation in the European training mission EUTM in Mali and instead to concentrate on the neighboring state of Niger.

France Wittenbrink

Editor in Politics.

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Three days later, during his first visit by German soldiers abroad, Olaf Scholz stood exactly where the Bundeswehr wants to pool its forces in the Sahel region in the future: at the base of the EUTM mission "Gazelle" in Tillia, Niger, where about one A handful of naval combat swimmers has been training Nigerien special forces in the fight against terrorism in the region since 2018.

A total of almost 200 German soldiers are involved in the mission.

Due to a quota change, there are currently about 260.

You are dealing with a "very successful", albeit "very dangerous" mission, Scholz said on Monday after the commander of the camp had led him to the military base.

Tillia is only about 80 kilometers from the Malian border.

The risk of terrorist attacks is particularly high there.

Only the Mali portion of the mission will be discontinued

"The Bundeswehr is doing extraordinary things here and has also achieved extraordinary things here under very difficult conditions," said the Chancellor, addressing the soldiers.

The "Gazelle" mission can therefore clearly be described as a "role model", i.e. as a model for other foreign missions of the Bundeswehr, which, according to Scholz, "do not always go so well".

Scholz therefore wants to extend the mission in Niger, which is limited to the end of the year.

It is now a matter of identifying "a good follow-up project" together with the local partners, said the Chancellor during a joint press conference with the Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, after he had returned to the Nigerien capital Niamey in a military aircraft of the Air Force.

According to the Chancellor, the Bundestag has already cleared the way for this: According to the decision last Friday, the mandate for the European training mission EUTM Mali, under which both Malian and Nigerien security forces had been trained, should not be completely discontinued.

The end of German participation only refers to the part of the mission in Mali, but not to the neighboring country.

The background to the German decision to withdraw from Mali was primarily the increased cooperation between the Sahel state and Russia and the presence of Russian mercenaries from the notorious Wagner troupe in the country.

Reports of a massacre at the end of March, in which Malian soldiers and Russian security forces are said to have murdered around 300 civilians, also caused outrage among Western partners.

The day before, Scholz had described the presence of Russian mercenaries in Mali and their "serious human rights violations" as "devastating".

The Nigerien government under President Bazoum, who was elected head of the country in 2021 during the first democratic change of power in the history of Niger, is regarded as a reliable partner of Germany and an important anchor point in the crisis-plagued Sahel zone.

Especially in view of the increasingly difficult situation in Mali, the country is increasingly becoming the focus of Europeans.

Niger is already hosting soldiers from several Western countries, such as French troops from Mali who were part of Operation Barkhane, which French President Emmanuel Macron recently declared over.

Will Senegal deliver LNG to Germany?

But even in comparatively stable Niger, one can sense that the security situation in the region is steadily deteriorating and that terror is spreading.

Several militias are active in the country, as well as in neighboring countries, some of them affiliated with "Islamic State" or al-Qaeda.

In addition to the European training mission EUTM, Germany is therefore also involved in the "European Union Capacity Building Mission" Niger (EUCAP Sahel Niger), which is intended to make an additional contribution to curbing terrorism and organized crime in the region by training Nigerien police forces.

After the talks with the Nigerien President, Scholz wanted to meet the current head of the mission, the German Antje Pittelkau, on Monday evening.

Scholz began his first trip to Africa as Chancellor on Sunday in Senegal, West Africa, and promised the country, among other things, that Germany would be involved in gas production in the future.

There was also the question of whether Senegal could supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany and Europe in the future.

After his talks in Niger, the Chancellor wanted to travel to South Africa on Monday evening.

As in Senegal, the focus there will be on economic and energy policy issues.

Scholz also wants to exchange views with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on how to deal with the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and its effects.

The Chancellor wanted democratic states to move even closer together in view of the changed world situation.

Scholz invited both Senegal and South Africa to the G-7 summit at the end of June at Schloss Elmau.