| Summary: | Colonization and infection with bacteria with acquired antibiotic resistance are among the risks for soldiers on international deployments. Enterobacterales with resistance against third-generation cephalosporines are amongst the most frequently imported microorganisms. To contribute to the scarcely available epidemiological knowledge on deployment-associated resistance migration, we assessed the molecular epidemiology of third-generation cephalosporine-resistant <i>Escherichia coli</i> isolated between 2007 and 2016 from German soldiers after deployments, with a particular focus on the African Sahel region. A total of 51 third-generation cephalosporine-resistant <i>E. coli</i> isolated from 51 military returnees from deployment collected during the assessment period between 2007 and 2016 were subjected to short-read next-generation sequencing analysis. Returnees from the Sahel region (Djibouti, Mali, South Sudan, Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda) comprised a proportion of 52.9% (27/51). Repeatedly isolated sequence types according to the Warwick University scheme from returnees from the Sahel region were ST38, ST131, and ST648, confirming previous epidemiological assessments from various sub-Saharan African regions. Locally prevalent resistance genes in isolates from returnees from the Sahel region associated with third-generation resistance were <i>bla</i><sub>CTX-M-15</sub>, <i>bla</i><sub>CTX-M-27</sub>, <i>bla</i><sub>CTX-M-1</sub>, <i>bla</i><sub>TEM-169</sub>, <i>bla</i><sub>CTX-M-14</sub>, <i>bla</i><sub>CTX-M-99</sub>-like, <i>bla</i><sub>CTX-M-125</sub>, <i>bla</i><sub>SHV-12</sub>, and <i>bla</i><sub>DHA-1</sub>, while virulence genes were <i>east1</i>, <i>sat</i>, and <i>tsh</i> in declining order of frequency of occurrence each. In line with phenotypically observed high resistance rates for aminoglycosides and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, multiple associated resistance genes were observed. A similar, slightly more diverse situation was recorded for the other deployment sites. In summary, this assessment provides first next-generation sequencing-based epidemiological data on third-generation cephalosporine-resistant <i>E. coli</i> imported by deployed German soldiers with a particular focus on deployments to the Sahel region, thus serving as a small sentinel. The detected sequence types are well in line with the results from previous epidemiological assessments in sub-Saharan Africa.
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