German army withdraws from Niger as military regime turns to Russia

The German armed forces have ended an eight-year deployment to Niger after surrendering control of a key airbase in the West African country.

A military plane carrying the remaining 60 German troops stationed at the base in the capital Niamey landed in Germany on Friday evening.

A second A400M transport aircraft carrying equipment was also on its way back.

The airbase in the outskirts of Niamey was staffed by up to 120 German military personnel and had been considered a key asset in Western efforts to contain terrorism in the region.

After failing to reach agreement with Nigerien authorities on legal immunity for its military personnel, Berlin agreed to surrender control of the base in July.

Following coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger was for a time seen as the West's last democratically ruled partner in battling terrorism in the region, which has suffered repeated attacks by Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

However, the army also took control of the country in Niger in a coup on July 26 last year.

The Niamey airbase served as the logistics hub for the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in neighbouring Mali that was set up in 2013 and terminated last year.

Some 3,200 German troops served in Niamey over the years.

Troops lost 'too high a price to pay'

Welcoming the returning troops upon arrival at Germany's Wunstorf airbase, German State Secretary of Defence Nils Hilmer noted that more than 200 service men and women lost their lives while deployed for MINUSMA and the European Union Training Mission Mali.

Hilmer said this number was "too high a price to pay in view of the limited success at political level in this region."

Three German troops were killed and 13 injured during the MINUSMA mission, according to the Defence Ministry.

Hilmer praised the efforts of the soldiers following the order to redeploy in July as an outstanding military, logistical and planning achievement.

The German base in Niger has cost Germany around €130 million since its launch in 2016, the government revealed in response to a parliamentary question from lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen from the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

German military presence uncertain

The German Defence Ministry had initially planned to keep the base operational after the end of the Mali mission, using it for potential evacuation or emergency missions.

It was also seen as a way to keep a strategic foothold in the region.

However, like its neighbours, Niger has since turned increasingly to Russia, housing Russian military training personnel at a base in Niamey, while all former partners have been expelled from the country.

Germany is in talks with Senegal to keep equipment at an airbase that was set up temporarily in the coastal country to facilitate the Niger withdrawal.

Operations at the Senegal base were discontinued after the end of the mission.