In May the Bundestag has to extend the Mali mandate. Now the Armed Forces Commissioner Eva Högl has brought a partial end to the mission into play. She receives opposition from the Union.
Up to 1100 German soldiers are deployed for the UN in Mali.
The Bundeswehr’s mission in Mali is increasingly becoming the focus of German politics. At the weekend, the Armed Forces Commissioner Eva Högl brought a partial end to the mission into play. «We have to analyze it ruthlessly. And then this option also belongs on the table, “said the Social Democrat of the German Press Agency. However, “what our realistic goals are” must be agreed with the international partners.
Germany should play an active role and present an honest interim balance sheet, said Högl, who had visited the West African country before Christmas. What is unusual about the initiative of the SPD politician is that she criticizes the UN stabilization mission MINUSMA in the country hit by military coups and Islamist terrorists, but wants to stick to the EU training mission EUTM. Most of the time, the criticism comes in the opposite direction.
Extension is due in May
In May, the two mandates will be extended by one year. Last year the Bundestag extended the mandates until May 31 of this year. The EU training mission EUTM was increased in personnel to up to 450 soldiers and the UN mission MINUSMA was continued. Up to 1100 German soldiers are deployed on behalf of the UN. The new EU mandate includes the expansion of the mandate and the expansion of the operational area to all of Mali and the other G5 Sahel countries – in particular to Burkina Faso and Niger.
The upcoming extension debate will be largely shaped by the experience with Afghanistan. In Berlin’s political class, there is broad consensus that the mission in Afghanistan suffered, among other things, from the fact that the goals were expanded, but despite regular parliamentary debates on the occasion of the mission extension, there was no clear evaluation of the funds used.
There was also no clarity as to when the mission had to be considered successful or failed. The new Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had already spoken out in favor of clear exit strategies for missions abroad when she was introduced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Questions of this kind will therefore be asked more intensely in relation to the two Mali mandates. The Greens have always been critical of the EU mission. Among other things, they criticized the fact that the expansion would also lead to cooperation with the coup government in Niger. There are also mission-critical currents in the SPD Chancellor’s party. The chairman of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, spoke out in favor of a review of the operation last year.
Criticism of Russian mercenaries in Mali
The occasion was reports of possible cooperation between the Malian government and Russian mercenaries. Shortly before Christmas, international partners, including Germany, sharply criticized Mali’s government for this. The current political instability in the country, where a coup government has been in power since 2020, will also have a major impact on the debate. At the weekend, the military government announced that the elections scheduled for February would be postponed and the return to constitutional order would be postponed for five years.
In the Union, however, Högl’s approach is viewed critically. Johann Wadephul, deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group responsible for foreign affairs and defense, fears the situation will worsen if German soldiers withdraw from the region. “If we withdraw our support, the Malian government will finally and completely be dependent on the Wagner mercenaries.” Furthermore, the pressure on the terrorist groups would decrease massively, and ultimately an end to German engagement would be a severe blow to the reliability and responsibility of German foreign and security policy.
It is all the more irresponsible when Högl is questioning a United Nations mission at the turn of the year with MINUSMA. “The international community seldom acts in unity there, and people particularly rely on our contribution. Just think of the newly installed helicopters or the drones, ”says Wadephul.
The Bundeswehr’s Mali mission is currently the most dangerous foreign mission of the German armed forces. In a suicide attack on a German UN patrol in June last year, twelve soldiers were injured, one of them seriously.