After getting final approval from Berlin’s parliament on Friday, German troops will deploy to Niger for a limited European Union (EU) training mission, since the country is viewed as vulnerable to war spillover from neighboring Mali.
Since the withdrawal of French and European forces, Islamist militants have made gains in Mali.
Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries, and the European Union (EU) decided in December to send 50-100 European troops there for three years to help the country improve its logistics and infrastructure. Germany may deploy up to sixty soldiers.
The German military had been training 150 troops from Niger’s special forces since 2018, but the assignment was finished by the end of 2022.
Over 1,100 German soldiers remain in Mali, mostly in the area around the northern town of Gao. Their primary mission is to provide reconnaissance for a UN peacekeeping force.
There have been persistent tensions with Mali’s ruling military junta, and the increasing deployment of Russian soldiers in the nation has alarmed the West. Germany’s capital decided in November to join other European nations such as France and the United Kingdom in removing their troops from Mali by May of the following year.
