The members of the Bundestag have approved the expansion of the deployment of German soldiers in Mali and the wider West African Sahel region with a large majority. In the future, up to 450 Bundeswehr soldiers can be deployed as part of the EUTM training mission. That is 100 more soldiers than before. The soldiers are to provide more intensive support to the armed forces of Mali, and are to set up a training facility in the center of the African country. The MPs also voted to extend the EUTM mandate to the Sahel states of Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. The Bundeswehr is also involved in the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma in Mali with 1,100 soldiers.