An end to the Bundeswehr mission in Mali is long overdue

Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to assume Germany's responsibility in the world. Also in the Sahel zone. The Green politician therefore wanted to leave the Bundeswehr in Mali in the UN mission Minusma: to protect the civilian population, to prevent areas of retreat for internationally networked terrorist organizations, not to leave the field to Russia and China, not to let the United Nations down to let.

These are legitimate ambitions for a foreign minister. Only: Baerbock has not presented a viable concept as to how these ambitions can be achieved. Continuing the participation in Minusma is not such a concept.

The mission has not achieved its goals since 2013, on the contrary. The security situation in the region has deteriorated, Islamists are spreading again, the democratically elected government was overthrown. Corruption, on the other hand, remained, as did the ethnic conflicts.

And above all: the popular military junta has decided against the exhausting cooperation with the democratic states of the West and ultimately also the United Nations - and prefers to consolidate its power with the help of the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Human rights violations are accepted with approval.

Germany's partners such as France – at whose request the Bundeswehr was sent to Mali in the first place – Great Britain, Sweden or the Netherlands have drawn the necessary conclusions and completed or announced their withdrawal from Mali. With that, military capabilities on which the Bundeswehr relied have also disappeared. The risks to the safety of German soldiers, on the other hand, increased.

Anyone who carefully reads the federal government's weekly reports to parliament knows that the Bundeswehr's mission of supporting the UN with reconnaissance and logistics has long since ceased to be able to be fulfilled. The nearly 1,200 soldiers are mainly concerned with securing their own camp. And they are being harassed by the Malian junta: transport flights have been regularly canceled for months due to a lack of permits, and not even the unmanned drones are allowed to take off.

Under these circumstances, the Bundeswehr mission is meaningless. It is therefore overdue that the Federal Government, under the leadership of the Chancellor, has now decided to end it. The fact that this should only happen in 2024 is a concession to Baerbock. However, it also assumes responsibility for the life and limb of the soldiers. Well over 200 Minusma soldiers have already lost their lives, including two helicopter pilots from the Bundeswehr.

If the Foreign Minister wants to make a contribution to stabilizing the Sahel zone, she must now look for other cooperation partners, whether in Niger, Chad or the Ivory Coast. But the will to help alone is not enough. Your House must come up with a strategy that begins with its own diplomatic engagement and does not end with the deployment of soldiers who are given lofty but unrealistic goals.