credit:  wikipedia public domain / French military helicopter in Operation Barkhane, anti-insurgent operation in Africa’s Sahel region.

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

More than 130 people were killed including women and children in  an attack on a Fulani village in central Mali on Saturday, the United Nations reported. The horrific attack occurred right at the moment  UN Security Council members were meeting in the west African nation on the future of the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) that is set to expire June 30, 2019.  MINUSMA continues to be targeted by terrorist organisations. In January, ten Chadian peacekeepers died after an attack on the MINUSMA camp in Aguelhok, and two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were killed in an attack on a convoy in Mopti. On 22 February, three Guinean peacekeepers were killed in an attack against the vehicle in which they were travelling near Siby (region of Bamako). 

And just last Sunday March 17, a terror attack on an army camp in central Mali killed 21 soldiers after assailants attacked a Malian armed forces camp in Dioura in north‑west Mopti town in the centre of the country.   A  Mali-based al-Qaeda affiliate said it had carried out last week’s attack.       The Security Council mission met Mali Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga  this weekend discuss the  the increased threat from jihadist fighters in central Mali.

Credit: Wikipedia /  Map of Mali highlighted by capital city BAMAKO.

Mission In West Africa Nation Mali  Is Deadliest In The World For UN Peacekeepers

MINUSMA is the deadliest mission to serve in as a UN ‘blue helmet’ with more than 180 paying the ultimate sacrifice, since it was established in 2013. In 2019 alone, the number of fatalities stands at 15, according to the  UN. 

United Nations Strongly Condemned The Latest Deadly Attack In Mali  

“We condemn in the strongest terms this unspeakable attack,”

said François Delattre, France’s UN Ambassador speaking as President of the UN Security Council at a press conference Saturday evening in the Malian capital, Bamako.

Photo MINUSMA/Marco Dormino  /  Les contingents du Niger et du Bangladesh lors d’une opération militaire à Ansongo. /

A Council delegation has been in Mali since late last week as part of a mission to Africa’s troubled Sahel region. The trip will wrap up tomorrow in Burkina Faso, according to the UN.

MINUSMA was established in Mali by Security Council resolution 2100 of 25 April 2013 to support political processes in that country and carry out a number of security-related tasks. In 2012, Islamist radicals linked to al-Qaeda hijacked an uprising by ethnic Tuareg people and went on to seize cities across northern Mali, holding on for nearly a year until they were forced out by a French military intervention, according to the Washington Post. When the 11,000 U.N. troops arrived in 2013, they were meant to protect a fledgling peace deal and train the Malian army. But Islamist extremists regrouped across the region. It did not take long before the militants started targeting peacekeepers, whom they dubbed “Crusader occupation forces.”

UN vows Mali Peacekeeping Mission to continue despite it being the deadliest such mission in the world. 

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  UN World Headquarters in New York City. 

A UN spokesperson said Secretary-General António Guterres was “shocked and outraged” by the latest deadly attacki n Mali. 

“The Secretary-General condemns this act and calls on the Malian authorities to swiftly investigate it and bring the perpetrators to justice,”  according to  a statement.

 Guterres called on the Malian authorities to “redouble their efforts to bring back peace and stability to central Mali.”

In this latest attack,  UN Security Council members have seen first hand how dangerous its peacekeeping mission in Mali continues to be, and that the  terror threat in the west African nation continues unabated.

“MINUSMA is to support the Malian State through the protection of civilians,” 

France’s UN Ambassador François Delattre  , speaking as President of the UN Security Council,  proclaimed in Mali at a press conference.  Well, in all due respect  Ambassador,    MINUSMA is not doing a very effective job. Over and over again, each time there is a deadly terrorist attack in Mali, the UN routinely comes out and condemns the violence,  but it not mapping out  an effective plan to protect civilians, Peacekeepers, and Malian soldiers. 

UN Council members will consider the renewal of MINUSMA’s mandate in June. Responding to budgetary concerns ahead of the mandate renewal, a government representative suggested that Council members also consider the cost in instability and human lives if MINUSMA were not there, according to a Security Council report.

Council members participated in the laying of wreaths at MINUSMA’s Mali headquarters in memory of the 195 MINUSMA peacekeepers who have fallen in the line of duty since 2013. Among them, 122 have died as a result of malicious acts, 16 since the beginning of the year.