German FM in Mali amid doubts over military mission

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was visiting Bundeswehr soldiers in Gao in northern Mali on Tuesday as the government in Berlin prepares to decide whether to extend their mission, reported dpa.

Baerbock visited Camp Castor, where a large part of the 1,100 Bundeswehr soldiers involved in the UN stabilisation mission MINUSMA are stationed.

The deployment in the crisis-hit country is seen as the most dangerous mission for German soldiers abroad after their hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Baerbock did not fly to Gao from the Malian capital Bamako with the usual official plane, but for safety reasons took a military transport aircraft.

In addition to the approximately Bundeswehr soldiers taking part in MINUSMA, about 320 other soldiers are deployed as part of the EU training mission EUTM.

At the end of May, the German parliament must decide on the future of the army's missions in Mali.

The continuation of the EUTM mission is controversial because of the cooperation of Mali's transitional military government with Russian mercenaries and the slow transition to democracy.

Baerbock noted immediately before her departure on Monday evening that the Malian government had "gambled away a great deal of international trust in recent months, not least by dragging out the democratic transition and intensifying military cooperation with Moscow."

"To simply say 'keep it up' now would be misguided in my view," Baerbock said.

The German mandates for the missions will end on May 31.