(Bloomberg) — Germany will withdraw its troops from the United Nations peacekeeping force in Mali by May 2024.
Most Read from Bloomberg
“The government has decided today to propose to parliament to extend the mandate for the Bundeswehr mission in Mali for the last time for a year in May 2023 in order to end this mission in a structured manner after 10 years,” the spokesman of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Steffen Hebestreit, said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
Germany had 575 soldiers and 32 staff officers serving in the Mali mission, known as Minusma, as of Sept. 30, according to UN data. French troops left Mali in August after almost a decade of helping fight al Qaeda-linked militants.
Mali, sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest gold producer, has been governed by a military junta since August 2020. It has grown more hostile toward western military intervention since the deployment of a US-estimated 1,000 mercenaries by Russia’s Wagner Group last year. Mali’s government has denied the presence of Wagner forces.
The German government has in the past repeatedly criticized the presence of Russian troops in Mali and threatened to end the mission.
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
