Germany to speed up withdrawal from Mali as U.N. mission ends – def min

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday that Germany is looking to pull its soldiers out of Mali 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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