MERKEL FAVORS CONTINUED GERMAN TROOP DEPLOYMENT IN MALI

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said she was against withdrawing German armed forces from Mali following the recent military coup in the crisis-ridden country, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

"We believe that our presence on the ground is still important," Merkel said after a videoconference with French President Emmanuel Macron. Merkel and Macron stressed that both the training mission and MINUSMA were still necessary.

The German Bundeswehr is on the ground with several hundred soldiers in a UN stabilization mission in Mali, MINUSMA, as well as in the EU training mission EUTM. France has more than 5,000 troops deployed in Mali to back up local forces against Islamist extremist groups.

Earlier, German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said Germany's presence is important in the fight against Islamist terrorists in the Sahel region. Seibert continued: "If the Sahel states are destabilized by the terrorism that is permanently harassing them, then this has direct humanitarian consequences for millions of people and for a large region in Africa."

This could not be in Europe's interests, he added. "And that is why it is right that the fight against terrorism has been supported there in recent years. That this is always difficult in the region, that there are setbacks as well as progress, nobody wants to deny that."

Seibert said that the German government had expressly condemned the ouster of the previous interim president and prime minister and supported demands by the West African economic community ECOWAS.

ECOWAS suspended Mali's membership at the weekend, two days after coup leader Assimi Goita had himself proclaimed to be the new interim president. ECOWAS called for the immediate appointment of a new civilian head of state.

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