Germany has started to withdraw its troops from Mali, Colonel Heiko Bohnsack, Germany's commander in Mali, said.
Approximately 1,000 German troops are in the West African country as part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), which is designed to keep peace and security in the country after transitional authorities came to force in Mali in 2013, followed by political and social unrest.
According to the German commander, the military has already begun shipping the first elements of equipment.
In the first stages of troop withdrawal, the available equipment will gradually be depleted, and the military will use all means to carry out their mission further, the commander stated.
On Wednesday, the government in Berlin prepared the document on the extension of the 10-year mission for the last year - until May 2024. The decision has yet to be approved or rejected by the lower house of Germany's parliament, Bundestag.
The decision to withdraw troops was announced by German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit in late November last year.
"The Federal Government decided today to propose to the Bundestag to extend the mandate of the Bundeswehr mission in Mali [within MINUSMA] in May 2023 by a year for the last time to bring this mission to a structured end after 10 years," Hebestreit said during a briefing.
In November 2022, the UK also announced its plans to remove forces from Mali's territory, which are also located there within the UN mission, six months earlier than planned, saying that the Malian government was not eager to cooperate with Britain in terms of security.
Another Western country to decide to pull out its military from the African nation was France. Its forces left Mali on 15 August 2022, after the local government announced that it was ending bilateral defense agreements. Earlier, Mali's top officials, including its Foreign Minister, Abdoulaye Diop, accused the European country of supporting terrorist groups inside the African country.
In contrast to Germany and the UK, France located its troops in Mali and other countries in the Sahel region within the so-called Barkhane operation, which was aimed at supporting African nations that were hit by Islamist groups. The operation formally ended on 9 November 2022.
The Western countries' decisions to pull their forces out from Mali is taking place amid continuing protests demanding that MINUSMA leave the country, with some protesters reportedly accusing MINUSMA of undermining country's sovereignty.