“Not to convey anymore”
Lambrecht questions Mali operations
4/9/2022, 10:23 p.m
Germany does not like the fact that the Malian army has been accused of atrocities and that the military junta maintains close ties with Russia. The Ministry of Defense wants to put the Bundeswehr’s current engagement in the African country to the test.
During a visit to Mali, Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht reiterated her doubts about the continuation of German military operations in the West African crisis-ridden state. In the case of the EU training mission in particular, the question arises “whether this is the regime we want to support,” said Lambrecht after a meeting with Bundeswehr soldiers in Gao.
“We are seeing that the Malian soldiers are receiving excellent training from highly motivated and well-qualified German soldiers, and then with these skills they go into action with Russian forces, for example, possibly even with mercenaries,” added the SPD politician . “And that raises the question of whether that can be reconciled with our values, especially when we then have to experience atrocities like in Moura.” This is something that, in her opinion, “can no longer be conveyed”.
According to the Malian army, it carried out a large-scale operation in Moura between March 23 and 31. 203 “terrorists” were killed. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch, on the other hand, accused the Malian army of working with foreign fighters in Moura to have killed around 300 civilians, some of them suspected Islamist fighters. Lambrecht called for a “complete and transparent” investigation into the alleged atrocities.
Germany is involved in Mali with up to 1,700 soldiers in the EU training mission EUTM and in the UN stabilization mission MINUSMA. Both mandates are limited to the end of May. The EU training mission is considered politically sensitive: The Malian army is being trained here, whose representatives had put a democratically elected government out of office. According to Western information, mercenaries from the highly controversial Russian Wagner Group are also deployed in the country.
French troop withdrawal causes problems
With regard to the UN mission Minusma, which is intended to help protect the civilian population of Mali, Lambrecht said that there was still a lot that needed to be clarified after the announced withdrawal of French troops from Mali. It must be prevented that the Bundeswehr soldiers involved in the mission are “disproportionately endangered,” said Lambrecht.
So far, the French have guaranteed the protection of soldiers with attack helicopters on the UN mission. The Federal Minister of Defense emphasized that the question of who will operate the airfield in Gao instead of France in the future is also central. It is also about skills such as medical supplies and the use of combat helicopters. They are working “at high pressure on a solution”. At the end of May, the Bundestag intends to decide on the extension of the mandates in Mali.