The last German soldiers have withdrawn from the Niamey hub after eight years. This means that the Bundeswehr’s presence in the Sahel has ended for the time being. Another country is moving into the gap.
The German army has ended its mission in the West African country of Niger after eight years and has evacuated the air transport base in Niamey. A military aircraft carrying the last remaining 60 German soldiers landed at the air base in Wunstorf, Lower Saxony, on Friday evening. At the same time, German material was flown back from Niamey in a second A400M transport aircraft.
The base on the outskirts of the Nigerien capital was operated by up to 120 men and women of the Bundeswehr. It served as the Bundeswehr’s logistical hub for the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma in Mali, which was terminated at the end of 2023 at the request of the military government there.
Niger was long considered Europe and the USA’s last partner in the Sahel region in the fight against terrorism, until the military seized power there a year ago. In July, the Ministry of Defense announced that it would abandon the Bundeswehr’s last base in West Africa after failing to reach agreement with the de facto military government in Niger on a new agreement to continue operations.
Niger turns to Russia
According to the Ministry of Defense, the base was actually intended to serve as a transit point for action in the strategically important region even after the end of the Mali mission – for example in the case of evacuation missions or emergencies. The aim was also to demonstrate Germany’s military presence in the region. However, like its neighbors, Niger is turning to Russia and has been hosting Russian military personnel – according to official information, instructors – at a base in Niamey for several months. Almost all other former partners, however, have been expelled.
Ministry of Defence: Critical assessment of Mali mission
The Ministry of Defense drew a critical balance of the UN and EU missions in the West African country of Mali. “The number of well over 200 soldiers killed in Minusma and (the EU training mission) EUTM Mali was too high a price to pay given the limited success at the political level in this region,” said State Secretary of Defense Nils Hilmer at the reception for the soldiers at the air base.
According to the Ministry of Defense, three German soldiers were killed and 13 injured during the Bundeswehr’s deployment as part of the Minusma stabilization mission. Hilmer said that the return of the last German soldiers would mark the end of “a decade of the Bundeswehr’s troop presence in the Sahel.” The region is of strategic importance: crises and conflicts there have a direct impact on Germany and Europe.
Hilmer praised the soldiers’ deployment after the order to withdraw in July as an outstanding military, logistical and planning achievement. The first Russian forces had already set up shop at a base that had previously been operated primarily by France in April.
Niamey base cost 130 million euros
The Bundeswehr base in Niger has cost Germany around 130 million euros since it was opened in 2016, the German government said in response to a query from MP Sevim Dagdelen from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). The expenditure was part of the Minusma mission, which ended in May. Up to then, the Minusma item had cost around 61.8 million euros this year, including the return of German equipment. Over the course of the eight years, a total of 3,200 German soldiers were deployed in Niamey.
For the withdrawal, the German army had temporarily set up a second air transport base in the coastal state of Senegal, but operations there were suspended after the end of the operation. The German government has a guarded and fenced-in area at a military airport in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, which is being kept in reserve for possible German operations. However, German forces are not on site.
Expert: Germany is losing influence
Ulf Laessing, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Sahel regional program based in Mali, told the dpa that the withdrawal of the German army would mean that Niger, after France and the USA, would be one of the last Western countries to become even more closely tied to Russia. “Germany is losing influence in a country through which a main route for poverty-stricken migration to North Africa runs.” Italy is showing more geopolitical foresight “and is keeping its troops stationed in Niamey so as not to leave the country to Russia.”
Source: Stern
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