The last EU soldier will leave Mali May 18 following a decision not to extend the mandate of the EU Training Mission (EUTM) there.

The EU’s departure is expected to create a vacuum which Russia will fill as it has done in other countries in the Sahel region.

Mali and its West African neighbours are rich in minerals, and strategically important.

During talks held late in March, the EU was unable to find common ground on retaining a military presence in the region.

France, which for decades was the leading European voice on military matters in West Africa, now opposes further engagements in Mali.

As unanimity was needed to extend the mission, the 11-year-old military presence now will end May 18.

The mission’s goal was to train local forces in military skills.

The region’s governments have been struggling with an unprecedented rise in jihadist terrorism and a notable expansion of trafficking in weapons, drugs, and immigrants.

At the mission’s peak the EU and UN hosted thousands of European troops in the region, but EUTM Mali currently only has 160 soldiers, 134 of them Spanish.

In December 2023, the UN withdrew 14,000 blue helmet-wearing UN peacekeepers from Mali, 1,000 of them German.

European deployments in Niger also halted.

The withdrawals followed a string of revolutions in African countries, where the new regimes all took hostile stances toward Europe, and toward France in particular: an old coloniser that maintained a large presence.