Mali’s military junta orders UN peacekeeping mission to leave “without delay”

Mali’s interim military junta asked on Friday for the UN peacekeeping mission in the country to leave “without delay”.

The peacekeeping force, known as MINUSMA, has been in Mali for a decade.

The ruling junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, has been increasingly at loggerheads with MINUSMA and other international allies including France.

The military junta rejected traditional Western allies turning to Russia for help in boosting its military capabilities. Western governments are worried about the presence of Russian private military contractor Wagner.

Mali’s Foreign Ministry on Friday called on the United Nations Security Council to withdraw a peacekeeping mission operational in the country for a decade citing its “failure” to respond to security challenges.

“The government of Mali calls for the withdrawal without delya of MINUSMA,” Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop told a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, referring to the UN force in his country.

MINUSMA head El Ghassim Wane reacted to Diop’s speech on Friday, saying it was “nearly impossible” to maintain the mission without the host country’s consent, the French AFP news agency reported.

Addressing the Security Council, Diop said his government was willing to cooperate with the UN. However, he rejected all options proposed by the UN secretary-general to change the mandate of the mission.

In January, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed three amendments to the mission. Proposals included increasing personnel and withdrawing troops. The UN chief eventually opted for a middle ground.

“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,” Diop said on Friday.

He added that the mission’s actions created “a feeling of distrust” toward it among the Malian population.

UN experts have recently pointed to human rights violations exercised by the Malian military junta, as well as its Russian supporters, the mercenary Wagner group, prompting the former’s ire.

Set up in 2013, MINUSMA’s mission, or the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, aimed to stabilize Mali amid a growing jihadist insurgency.

However, relations between the mission and the ruling regime became tense recently, especially following the military take-over in a 2020 coup, followed by another coup nine months later.

In August 2022, Malian authorities also expelled MINUSMA  Spokeman Olivier Salgodo, and ordered the temporary suspension of the mission’s group rotations.

Earlier this year in February, Mali’s ruling military junta declared a senior official of the peacekeeping mission persona non grata, giving him 48 hours to leave the country.

Security Council members must adopt a resolution to extend MINUSMA’s mandate in Mali by June 30. A resolution requires at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France to pass.

Since 2015 that violence has increased in the region with attacks by groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State spreading to Mali’s neighbours in the Sahel region. Thousands have been killed and over six million displaced, according to the UN.