Germany to speed up Mali pullout as UN mission ends

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — German Bundeswehr soldiers work alongside a group of Mauritanian troops executing a dismounted patrol training scenario during Flintlock 2020 in Kaedi, Mauritania, Feb.25, 2020. (U.S. Army Photo by Cpl. Kevin Sterling Payne via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday that Germany is looking to pull its soldiers out ofMali faster, though still in an ordered manner, in light of the planned end of a United Nations peacekeeping mission on June 30.

"For us, this means that we will try to get out even faster, to get out of Mali but in an orderly way," he said.

Germany, which has deployed some 1,000 troops to Mali, already is withdrawing troops and aims to wind up by May 2024.

(Reporting by Miranda Murray, Editing by Friederike Heine)

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