Following the UK, Germany announces that it wants to withdraw its troops from Mali by the end of 2023.

Following the UK, Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt, it is Germany’s turn in recent days to announce its desire to withdraw its troops deployed in Mali as part of the UN mission (Minusma). “German soldiers must stop participating in the UN peacekeeping operation Minusma no later than the end of 2023,” a government source said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. This decision is the subject of an agreement in principle in the German government and, according to the same source, the official announcement is due next Tuesday.

More than 12,000 UN soldiers and 1,700 police officers, including 1,100 Germans, are in Mali as part of the Minusma deployment to the country, launched in 2013, aimed, among other things, at stabilizing the security situation in the country.

This statement comes in the context of tensions between the UN and the military junta in power in Mali. While the country has been facing recurring jihadist attacks since 2012 and plunged into a deep political and political crisis, incumbent Colonel Assimi Goita is getting closer and closer to Russia and its Wagner paramilitary group.

After ousting a former French ally in early 2022, the junta verbally attacked Minusma several times, whose mandate was extended in June by one year. Mali on this occasion expressed “strong opposition” to the freedom of movement of the “blue helmets” to investigate possible violations of human rights.

“Important countries” refuse

On November 14, the UK also said it wanted to withdraw “earlier than expected” its contingent of nearly 300 soldiers in the force.

A day later, it was the Ivorian army that announced the gradual withdrawal of its troops as part of the UN forces by August 2023. “It’s a matter of overall consistency. Other important countries are in the process of leaving (from Mali), we have no reason to stay,” said Amadou Coulibaly, spokesman for the Ivorian government.

“We remain grateful to Côte d’Ivoire for the services and contributions of all its staff in Mali and for its continued support for UN peacekeeping operations,” the organization said in a statement. Relations between Abidjan and Bamako have deteriorated significantly in recent months, especially after the arrest last July of 49 Ivorian soldiers in Mali. After three releases, 46 of them are still in detention, Bamako accuses them of being mercenaries, and Abidjan says they were supposed to be involved in securing the German Blue Helmets contingent in Mali.

Egypt, for its part, announced in mid-July that it was suspending the participation of its 1,035 soldiers in Minusma. France, the main power intervening militarily in Mali, in particular through the soldiers of the Barkhan forces, decided in February to withdraw its troops. The last French soldiers left Mali this summer after almost a decade of intervention.

Participants in the region are due to meet next week in Ghana to coordinate their response to instability in the Sahel.