UN mission in Mali officially ends after 10 years: Germany
German troops had been a key pillar of the MINUSMA mission since Paris pulled its forces out from Mali in 2022.
The UN mission in Mali was created in 2013 to help stabilise the country as it battled an insurgency. / Photo: AFP Archive
Germany has said it had ended its participation in the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, in a pullout ordered by Mali's military leaders.
"Today at 3:00 PM (1400 GMT) the last 142 Bundeswehr soldiers left Camp Castor in Gao, Mali," the army said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that a final four soldiers will leave Bamako on Sunday.
"This marks the end of a formative foreign deployment for the Bundeswehr after almost exactly 10 years," the army said, adding that aro und 27,500 soldiers had served under MINUSMA.
German troops had been a key pillar of the MINUSMA mission since Paris pulled its forces out from Mali in 2022.
Closer to Niger, Burkina Faso
The UN mission in Mali was created in 2013 to help stabilise the country as it battled an insurgency.
Mali's ruling junta, which seized power in 2020, in June demanded the mission's departure, despite being in the grip of violence and other crises.
After seizing power, Mali's junta ditched the country's alliance with former colonial power France, following months of deteriorating relations, preferring rapprochement with Moscow.
The junta has also drawn closer to Niger and Burkina Faso - both now also run by military regimes with deepening ties to Russia after recent coups.
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