UN MINUSMA Peacekeeping operation in Africa / (credit: un.org)

By  Gary  Raynaldo     –   DIPLOMATIC   TIMES

UNITED  NATIONS  –   NEW  YORK  –   The UN is preparing for an “unprecedented” withdrawal of some 12,947 peacekeeping troops in violence-ridden Mali. In June,  the military junta in the west African nation demanded that the troops should leave by the end of the year. 

The departure of troops was ordered by Mali’s transitional administration under Col. Assimi Goita, who came to power in 2021 following a coup. Goita accuses the UN of being responsible for failing to bring peace to Mali despite deploying thousands of soldiers. The peacekeeping mission was established in 2013 to stabilize the country amid a jihadi insurgency.

“MINUSMA seems to have become part of the problem by fueling community tensions exacerbated by extremely serious allegations which are highly detrimental to peace, reconciliation and national cohesion in Mali”. 

-Mali Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop told the UN Security Council June 16, 2023. 

The Security Council on Monday held an open briefing on the Secretary-General’s plan for the transfer of tasks of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).  UN Secretary-General António Guterres presented his current plan, which is still under discussion, for the transfer of MINUSMA’s tasks in a letter dated 18 August. According to the letter, “the timeline, scope and complexity of the withdrawal of MINUSMA are unprecedented”.  

The United Nations Security Council Meets on Situation in Mali at UN world headquarters in New York Aug. 28, 2023.  (Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe)

Challenges include Mali’s vast terrain, the presence of terrorist groups, the volume of the mission’s equipment, and recent developments following a coup in Niger, which is a key transit country both for the supply of the mission during the drawdown and the exit of its personnel and equipment. The situation in Mali remains volatile and extremely dangerous. MINUSMA is the most dangerous peace operations for peacekeepers. Since its establishment in Mali in 2013, nearly 300 peacekeepers have lost their lives in hostile acts. While it pulls out its peacekeeping troops in Mali, the UN remains committed to supporting the country’s stability and development, the head of the Mission said during Monday’s Security Council briefing.  El-Ghassim Wane, who is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Mali, updated ambassadors on the Mission’s withdrawal process. The UN envoy noted that the military takeover in Niger also impacts MINUSMA’s withdrawal plan, given that routes to ports in Cotonou (Benin) and Lomé (Togo) cross Niger.  “It is crucial that we can transport equipment and materials across Niger to these ports for their subsequent repatriation to the concerned troop and police-contributing countries,” Ambassador Wane stated. 

Issa Konfourou, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mali to the United Nations, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Mali at UN world headquarters in New York Aug. 28, 2023.  (Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe)

TEN UN Peacekeepers Killed in Mali in 2023 Alone 

MINUSMA in Africa is the most dangerous UN peacekeeping operation in the world / (credit: un.org)

On June 9, two UN peacekeepers from Burkina Faso were killed in the Timbuktu region of West African nation Mali, and eight others injured in an attack by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).  The UN said the area of the attack is where extremists continue to operate.  The deaths marked the 10th this year, in Mali – which has long been the most dangerous place to serve as a peacekeeper.  The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was established 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.”