Dutch defence minister quits over artillery training deaths
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Netherlands’ defence minister and the country’s military chief both resigned Tuesday night following a critical report into a 2016 artillery training accident that killed 2 peacekeeping troops and wounded a third.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who has been a caretaker minister since national elections in March, had been under pressure since the publication last week of the independent Dutch Safety Board report into the accident in Mali.
Cutting short, at least for now, what many had seen as a promising political career, she announced her resignation in Parliament following a long debate into the report, which criticized the defence ministry for “serious shortcomings” in its care for troops sent on a peacekeeping mission in the African nation.
“I have put my heart and soul into serving in the defence ministry,” she told lawmakers. “But it stops here, today.”