Germany will next month end its longest peacekeeping mission to date, in Bosnia, after 17 years, dpa quoted a spokesman as saying Thursday. The Bundeswehr is set to fold its flag in Sarajevo on September 27 and a few days later the last two soldiers serving with the Eufor mission will return home, the spokesman told dpa. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in July that the mandate of the Bundeswehr in Bosnia would not be extended. Eufor Althea is the European Union peacekeeping mission that replaced the NATO-led force (SFOR) in 2004. International missions in Bosnia - first Ifor, then Sfor - were deployed from December 1995 to cement the fragile peace agreement which ended the Bosnian war after more than three years.
