BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will play a substantial role in a planned EU mission in Niger, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said during a visit to the capital Niamey on Friday.
“We are not leaving the Sahel on its own,” she told reporters, without putting a figure on the number of troops Berlin would contribute to the mission.
At a meeting in Brussels on Monday, EU foreign ministers paved the way for a three-year military mission to Niger to support the country in its fight against armed groups.
Some 50-100 European troops at first and up to 300 at a later stage are to help the country improve its logistics and infrastructure.
One of the poorest countries in the world, Niger is seen at risk of a possible spill-over of violence from neighbouring Mali, where Islamist militants have been gaining ground following the withdrawal of French and other European forces.
The German military has been training Niger’s special forces with some 150 soldiers since 2018 but this mission will be wrapped up by the end of the year.
At the same time, there are still some 1,100 German troops based in neighbouring Mali, most of them near the northern town of Gao where their main task is to gather reconnaissance for the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSMA.
This mission has been plagued for a while by recurring disputes with the ruling military junta in Bamako and an increasing Russian military presence in Mali that has prompted unease in the West.
In November, Berlin decided to pull out its troops from Mali by May 2024, following France and other European nations such as Britain.
Europe’s relations with Mali have deteriorated since a military coup in 2020 and since the government invited fighters from the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked private military company, to support its fight against insurgents.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, writing by Rachel More; editing by Matthias Williams and Louise Heavens)
