Credit: Wikipedia Commons /  ISAF HQ Public Affairs  / German Army soldiers in Afghanistan in front of Dingo infantry mobility vehicles, 2009.

By Gary  Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Amid a wave extremist violence in Africa’s Sahel region, Germany wants to expand its troop mandate in the troubled territory.  Germany already has some 1,000 soldiers stationed in the west African  nation Mali participating in the  UN  Mission in the Sahel as well as an EU military training mission.  France, which has 4,500 troops in the Sahel, has reportedly asked Germany to  deploy more soldiers. Meanwhile, the  United States has  indicated it wants to cut troops  in Africa, which  would put the burden on European allies to battle the  growing Islamist violence. According to media reports,  Germany has proposed expanding the number of troops in the  Sahel between 350-450.  To put things in perspective, G5 Sahel countries have an estimated 5,000-strong force battling the militants, the French have  4,500 soldiers deployed in its Operation Barkhane in the Sahel since 2013,  the UN also has over 12,000 peacekeepers in Mali, while the US has two drone bases in Niger, providing intelligence and training support throughout the region.  Despite the presence of nearly 22,000 troops in the Sahel, they have yet to succeed in stopping the Islamist insurgency. The Jihadist insurgency in the Sahel region of Africa shows no signs of abating as four soldiers were killed in an extremist attack in Burkina Faso just this past Monday.  In 2019, there were  more than 700 such violent episodes, according to a security brief published by the African Center for Strategic Studies(ACSS).  Fatalities linked to these events have increased from 225 to 2,000 during the same period. This surge in violence has uprooted more than 900,000 people, including 500,000 in Burkina Faso in 2019 alone,  according to the ACSS brief.  So, what does Germany think will be accomplished with deploying another 400 or so troops? 

German Defense Minister Supports Sending more Troops to Africa’s Sahel

Credit:  ©Bundeswehr/Jana Neumann /   German Defense Minister Annegret  Kramp-Karrenbaue

Germany should consider expanding its troop mandate in Africa’s Sahel region, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said last December.  The mandate for German troops does not cover taking part in counter-terrorism operations. Any troop mandate needs to be approved by parliament.  But this Thursday,  Germany’s Parliament, the Bundestag, debated mandates governing the deployment of its troops in the Sahel. 

Kramp-Karrenbauer noted that the Sahel region has become a “major hub for terrorism, organized crime, migration and human trafficking.” Germany cannot allow itself to “duck away” from responsibility in the region, she said, warning that doing so could have serious security consequences, as reported by DW.com. 

It seems that sending more foreign troops to the  African Sahel  is not the answer, as many political leaders there and its citizens are already growing weary of the  massive presence of  French soldiers on their territory the past 7 years and who have failed  to  make their lives safer.  Instead, the answer is more aid for Africa to spend on better education and more job opportunities for the youth to steer them away from joining terror organizations or fleeing the  Continent to seek a better life in Europe, where the  French and Germans don’t want them in their country anyway.  Germany’s mandate for its two missions expires this month, and the German government has proposed extending the two mandates by one year, to May 2021, as well as expanding the Bundeswehr’s participation in the EU’s training mission.  But what would really be accomplished on the battlefield in the Sahel  by expanding  its field of operations with an additional 450 troops?