German Military Concludes 8-Year Niger Deployment, Cedes Strategic Airbase. The German armed forces have concluded their eight-year mission in Niger, relinquishing control of a key airbase in Niamey. A military plane carrying the last 60 German troops stationed at the base returned to Germany on Friday evening, marking the end of the deployment. A second A400M transport aircraft carrying equipment was also en route back to Germany.....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE
The airbase, located on the outskirts of Niamey, was staffed by up to 120 German military personnel and had been considered a crucial asset in Western efforts to contain terrorism in the region. However, after failing to reach an agreement with Nigerien authorities on legal immunity for its military personnel, Berlin agreed to surrender control of the base in July.
Niger, once seen as the West’s last democratically ruled partner in combating terrorism in the region, has experienced political upheaval following a military coup on July 26 last year. The Niamey airbase had served as a logistics hub for the UN’s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in neighboring Mali, which was established in 2013 and ended last year. Over the years, approximately 3,200 German troops served in Niamey.
Welcoming the returning troops at Germany’s Wunstorf airbase, German State Secretary of Defence Nils Hilmer acknowledged the heavy toll of the mission. More than 200 servicemen and women lost their lives while deployed for MINUSMA and the European Union Training Mission Mali. Hilmer described this number as “too high a price to pay in view of the limited success at the political level in this region.” According to the Defence Ministry, three German troops were killed and 13 injured during the MINUSMA mission. Hilmer praised the soldiers’ efforts following the order to redeploy in July, calling it an outstanding military, logistical, and planning achievement.
The German base in Niger has cost Germany around €130 million ($143.7 million) since its inception in 2016, the government revealed in response to a parliamentary question from lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen of the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). Initially, the German Defence Ministry had planned to keep the base operational after the end of the Mali mission, intending to use it for potential evacuation or emergency missions and to maintain a strategic foothold in the region.
However, like its neighbors, Niger has increasingly aligned itself with Russia, hosting Russian military training personnel at a base in Niamey while expelling all former Western partners. Germany is currently in talks with Senegal to keep equipment at an airbase that was temporarily set up in the coastal country to facilitate the Niger withdrawal. Operations at the Senegal base were discontinued after the mission ended.
