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The attack in Tarkint occurred on June 25, 2021, in the village of Tarkint, Mali. It was the worst attack on German troops to date in Mali, injuring twelve soldiers from the Bundeswehr mission MINUSMA and one Belgian MINUSMA soldier, three seriously. The UN mission had initially spoken of 15 injured.
The UN MINUSMA mission, which has been running in Mali since 2013, has intervened in the Mali War in an attempt to push Islamist militias out of the country. Germany is one of the countries that chose (including France) to join the mission.
At the time of the attack, the Bundeswehr had around 1,000 soldiers stationed in Mali. Most of them served in MINUSMA and some in the European training mission EUTM. Since an effective containment of the terrorist threat had not succeeded by this time, the French President Emmanuel Macron announced in 2021 the largest foreign troops in the region, the French armed forces among others in the Opération Barkhane in Mali and the security strategy for the whole Rethink the Sahel region. [1]
Despite the increasing risk in the deployment area, the Bundestag extended German participation in both MINUSMA missions to the end of May 2022 in a resolution in 2021. In the leadership of the Bundeswehr, the mission in Mali is rated as the most dangerous German mission abroad. Mali was politically unstable again in 2021 after two military coups, and the question arose whether the involvement of the Bundeswehr had also helped the coup leader Assimi Goita with training aids. Following language training in 2008, among other things, he took part in a course for company commanders in Germany.
A UN force MINUSMA patrol in Mali was in the north of the country in Gao region. The mixed reconnaissance company of the German contingent, which also includes Irish and Belgian soldiers, was on a reconnaissance mission. [2] The attack happened near the community of Tarkint, about 180 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital Gao.
At 8:28 a.m. local time on June 25, 2021, a suicide bomber in a pickup broke through the outer ring of a wagon castle built with the help of armored vehicles and detonated an explosive device. An tank truck was placed in this inner ring, which was parked 20 meters from the than exploded pickup. [2] The tank truck didn't explod. Twelve German soldiers and one Belgian soldier from the MINUSMA mission were wounded as a result of the detonation. According to German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, three of the injured were seriously wounded. The rescue chain was then triggered and the international forces involved in the mission were flown out by helicopter. The seriously injured were transported to neighboring Niger.
Six wounded soldiers were flown from Gao to Cologne on June 26, 2021, in an air force Airbus A400M equipped with intensive care equipment (StratAirMedEvac) for further medical treatment and transferred from there to the German Armed Forces Central Hospital in Koblenz. A second plane flew over Niamey, Niger, another six injured soldiers to Stuttgart. From there they were transferred to the Bundeswehr hospital in Ulm. Operations took place in both hospitals immediately upon arrival. [3]
The Mali War is an ongoing conflict that started in January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, which they called Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.
Operation Serval was a French military operation in Mali. The aim of the operation was to oust Islamic militants from the north of Mali, who had begun a push into the center of Mali.
Operation Newcombe was the code name for two separate and concurrent British non-combat military operations in Mali. One operation involved logistical and airlift support for the French-led Operation Barkhane, whilst the other encompassed peacekeeping in support of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The operation was first launched on 13 January 2013 by Prime Minister David Cameron and initially involved strategic airlift and aerial reconnaissance. It later saw the deployment of a detachment of Chinook transport helicopters, before shifting its emphasis to UN peacekeeping in 2020. The operation ultimately drew to a close on 14 November 2022 due to political instability in the country.
The following is a timeline of major events during the Northern Mali conflict.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali was a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. MINUSMA was established on 25 April 2013 by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2100 to stabilise the country after the Tuareg rebellion of 2012, and was terminated over a decade later on 30 June 2023. Officially deployed on 1 July 2013, MINUSMA was the UN's second-most dangerous peacekeeping mission after Lebanon, with 304 peacekeepers killed out of a force of about 15,200 as of May 2023.
Operation Barkhane was a counterinsurgency operation that started on 1 August 2014 and formally ended on 9 November 2022. It was led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region and consisted of a roughly 3,000-strong French force, which was permanently headquartered in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. The operation was led in co-operation with five countries, all of which are former French colonies that span the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Mali was a part of the operation until August 2022. The countries are collectively referred to as the "G5 Sahel". The operation was named after a crescent-shaped dune type that is common in the Sahara desert.
The 2016 Nampala attack was an armed assault against a Malian Army base in the Niono Cercle subdivision of the Ségou Region of Mali on 19 July 2016, that left at least 17 government soldiers dead and 35 others injured. The Katiba Macina, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the ethnic Fula militant group National Alliance for the Protection of Fulani Identity and the Restoration of Justice (ANSIPRJ) claimed joint responsibility.
Clashes began around the village of Araouane in Mali's Taoudénit Region, after French forces launched an attack against JNIM militants in the area. The initial and subsequent engagements were part of Operation Barkhane, the goal of which is to eliminate JNIM commanders in the region.
On 14 April 2018, militants attacked the MINUSMA base in Timbuktu Airport, known informally as the "super camp". The JNIM later claimed responsibility for the attack, in reprisal for the deaths of some of their commanders in clashes that occurred about a week earlier.
The Takuba Task Force was a European military task force placed under French command, established to advise, assist and accompany Malian Armed Forces, in coordination with G5-Sahel partners and other international actors on the ground.
Events in the year 2021 in Mali.
An Islamist insurgency has been ongoing in the Sahel region of West Africa since the 2011 Arab Spring. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.
Events in the year 2022 in Mali.
Camp Castor is an international peacekeeping forward operating base in the town of Gao, Mali, supporting activities of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) since 2014.
Events in the year 2023 in Mali.
The battle of Ber took place on October 27, 2018, after Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) militants attacked a MINUSMA base manned by Burkinabe soldiers in Ber, Mali.
On July 17, 2019, Franco-Malian forces clashed with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara near Fafa, in Mali.
The 2019 Aguelhok attack was an attack by Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin against the MINUSMA base in Aguelhok, Mali on January 20, 2019. At the time of the attack, the base was defended by Chadian and Bengali peacekeepers, and was later aided by French forces part of Operation Barkhane.
On April 26 and 27, 2018, militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked two refugee camps near Andéramboukane, Ménaka, Mali, killing forty-seven people, mostly Tuareg civilians.
The battle of Gourma-Rharous took place on April 18, 2017, between French and Malian forces against an attacking Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.