Credit: MINUSMA/Gema Cortes /  UN MINUSMA peacekeepers travelling to remote parts in Northern Mali.

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW YORK –  The United Nations Security Council  last week extended for one year the mandate of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).   The Council resolution proposing the extension of the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali until 30 June 2021 was adopted unanimously. MINUSMA was established by Security Council Resolution 2100 of April 25, 2013 to support political processes in that country and carry out a number of security-related tasks. The mission was tasked to support the transitional authorities of Mali in the stabilization of the country and implementation of the transitional roadmap.  The Council decided that MINUSMA increase up to 13,289 military personnel and 1,920 police personnel.  It also authorized the Mission to use “all necessary means” to carry out its mandate “with a proactive, robust flexible and agile posture”. 

MINUSMA Budget Increased To $1.2 BILLION 

The mission’s annual budget has also been increased to $1.2 billion dollars, making MINUSMA – the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali – the third most expensive peacekeeping operation in the world.

Regarding other military forces in the region, the resolution encourages the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) States — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger — to scale up the level of operation of its joint force and requested the Secretary-General to enhance the sharing of intelligence between MINUSMA and the joint force.  It also authorized French forces in Mali to use all necessary means to intervene in support of MINUSMA when the Mission faces a serious threat.  In addition, it encouraged the European Union to continue to support security sector reform and the re-establishment of State authority throughout Mali.

UN Mission In  Mali  Is The Deadliest In World For Peacekeepers

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

Meanwhile, the terror threat in Mali continues unabated despite a massive deployment UN peacekeepers and  French troops tasked with halting jihadist’s attacks. There have been  25 French soldiers confirmed killed since the start of Operation Barkhane, which was launched more than four years ago to quell jihadist activity in the former French colony of Mali and in neighbouring countries.  Unidentified armed men massacred 31 civilians in simultaneous attacks on several Mali villages last week, then killed nine soldiers responding to the assault as violence surges. Last month two UN peacekeepers in northern Mali were killed in an attack on their convoy.

The  MINUSMA Mission In West Africa nation Mali is the most dangerous in the world for UN Peacekeepers.  There have been nearly 200 UN ‘blue helmet’ peacekeepers killed since MINUSMA  was established in 2013.  Three UN peacekeepers from Chad were killed in northern Mali in May  when their convoy hit a roadside bomb near Aguelhok, in the restive Kidal region.  On Feb. 20, 2019, three UN peacekeepers from Guinea  were killed near west African nation Mali’s capital city Bamako. On Jan. 20, 2019, ten peacekeepers from Chad were killed in a suspected Islamist attack in northern Mali.

West Africa Shaken By “Unprecedented” Extremist and Ethnic Violence: UN Envoy

Credit: unowas /  Mohamed Ibn Chambas.  Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS)

Violent Islamist attacks across the West African Sahel region have doubled every year since 2015, according to a recently published security brief by the African Center for Strategic Studies.  In 2019, there have been more than 700 such violent episodes, the ACSS brief reports.  Fatalities linked to these events have increased from 225 to 2,000 during the same period. This surge in violence has uprooted more than 900,000 people, including 500,000 in Burkina Faso in 2019 alone,  the brief notes.  Last December 2019, the UN Security Council held a briefing on the inter-communal violence and terrorism in West Africa.  Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the UN envoy for West Africa and the vast Sahel region, told the Security Council that the region has been “shaken by unprecedented violence”.   An “horrific attack against the Inates military camp, in Niger, still haunts the region”, he asserted, adding that “relentless attacks on civilian and military targets have shaken public confidence”. 

United Nations Cannot Deal With Terrorist Threat: Ambassador of NIGER  to U.S. 

Credit: by Gary Raynaldo / Ambassador of Niger to the United States Abdallah Wafy (left)  with  Ambassador Ambassador  of Mauritania  to the U.S.  Sept. 9, 2019 Washington D.C. Africa Sahel Conference. 

“Ten years ago, there were no foreign troops in Mali. Now there are many.  (UN) MINUSMA costs $1 Billion per year. After six years and $6 Billion,  we still have the problem of terrorism. Also France spends $700 million per  year for its Operation Barkhane. But the situation (in Sahel) is deteriorating. The region is still a sanctuary for terrorists.  We should divert these funds to those who are able to do the job. The UN can not deal with a terrorist threat.  MINUSMA is a peacekeeping operation. MINUSMA is not designed to fight terrorists. We are going to address this issue at the UN Security Council next year. As of January 2020, Niger will be on the UN Security Council.”

-Ambassador of Niger to the United States Abdallah Wafy