Germany can no longer cooperate militarily with Niger because of a lack of “trust” in relations with the West African country’s military regime, German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier this month.
Germany already announced on July 6 that it will end operations at its airbase in Niger and pull out its remaining three-dozen troops by August 31. “It was not possible to continue because the trust that existed before was no longer there,” Baerbock said during a visit to nearby Ivory Coast.
“At the same time, we have not stopped humanitarian aid because the people of Niger are not responsible for what happened,” she said during a joint press conference with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.
Niger has been run by a military regime since a coup d’etat in July 2023 ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held as a prisoner ever since. The regime has turned its back on other Western allies such as France and the United States to sidle toward Russia.
At the end of May, Germany and Niger reached an interim agreement allowing the German military to continue operating its airbase in the capital Niamey until the end of August.
Germany will keep its military air transport hub in Niger’s capital Niamey open for now, the defence ministry in Berlin, shortly after the European Union announced it would end its military mission in the country by June 30.
Berlin has some 90 troops based in Niamey at the moment. German troops were part of a small European Union training mission in Niger after the parliament in Berlin gave its final approval in May last year.
“Germany and Niger have struck a temporary agreement allowing for the continued presence of German forces in Niger,” the German defence ministry said in a statement, adding that this would enable Berlin to keep the base open beyond May 31 for now.
Until a coup in 2023, Niger had been a partner of the West in Africa’s Sahel region against militants who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.
But negotiations to extend that agreement broke down, notably because the base’s personnel would no longer benefit from immunity from prosecution.
Germany has used the base in Niamey since 2013 as a supply hub for its forces in neighbouring Mali where they were serving as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission MINUSMA. The last German troops left Mali at the end of 2023.
For several years. Germany has been providing military aids to Niger to combat cross-border militancy and trafficking through the Agadez region of the Sahel. The German military had been training Niger’s special forces with some 150 soldiers since 2018 but wrapped up that mission at the end of 2022.
In 2017, Berlin donated 100 flat-bed military trucks, 115 motorcycles and 55 satellite phones to Niger for use by its special army and police counter-terrorism units to combat cross-border militancy and trafficking through the Agadez region of the Sahel.
Also in November 2018, Germany also gifted 53 logistics vehicles to Niger’s military. Germany is building an officer training school in Niger and expanding the military section of the capital’s airport.