On Monday 27 May, the EU Council decided not to extend the European Union Military Partnership Mission in Niger (EUMPM) beyond 30 June 2024, following the decision of the Political and Security Committee ambassadors on 23 April to the same effect.
On 4 December 2023, the Niger junta announced that it would terminate the agreement establishing the legal basis for the deployment of both the EUMPM mission and EUCAP Sahel Niger (see EUROPE 13307/20). In a letter dated 21 December 2023, the Mission Commander, Lieutenant-General Michiel van der Laan, informed the EU Council that the EU staff of EUMPM Niger had been redeployed to Europe.
The EUMPM mission had been set up a year earlier, in December 2022 (see EUROPE 13082/33), at the request of the former Niger authorities to strengthen the capacity of the Niger armed forces to contain the terrorist threat. The initial agreed duration of the assignment was three years. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)