Germany has begun withdrawing its forces from Mali, aiming to finish a mission by May next year that has been hampered by disagreements with the ruling military junta in Bamako and the arrival of Russian forces.
Berlin has deployed about 1,000 soldiers to Mali, most of them near the northern town of Gao where their main task is to collect reconnaissance for the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA.
The German commander in Mali, Col. Heiko Bonsack, told the Tagesspiegel Daily in an interview published on Wednesday, that the military has started shipping the first components for up to about 1,300 container loads of equipment.
He added that in the early stages of the withdrawal, the materials in place would slowly be reduced while the forces would retain all means to accomplish their mission.
Also on Wednesday, the government in Berlin cleared the way for a final ten-year extension of the mandate until May 2024, a decision still subject to approval by the lower house of parliament.
MINUSMA was established in 2013 to support foreign and local forces fighting Islamist militants, but in recent months there have been frequent cases of friction between the Malian authorities and the mission.
MINUSMA has about 12,000 military personnel deployed in the country. The three largest contributors are Chad, Bangladesh, and Egypt.
Europe's relations with Mali have deteriorated since the military coup in 2020, and since the government has invited fighters from the Wagner Group, a private military company linked to the Kremlin, to support its war against the rebels.
This prompted France to withdraw its forces in 2022 after nearly a decade in Mali.
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