BAMAKO: The United Nations mission in Mali has ended a decade of deployment in the crisis-hit African country.
Earlier a deadline of December 31 was agreed for the Mission’s withdrawal after Mali’s military leaders ordered it to leave.
The UN stabilization mission (MINUSMA) had been in place in the African nation since 2013, and its abrupt withdrawal is raising fears that fighting will intensify between troops and armed factions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement on Sunday said that MINUSMA had completed its agreed withdrawal by December 31, 2023.
The UN chief lauded the mission’s “key role” in protecting civilians and supporting the peace process in Mali, which is in the grip of violence and other crises.
Guterres praises MINUSMA in maintaining ceasefire in Mali
He also praised the work of MINUSMA in maintaining the ceasefire in the context of the 2015 peace and reconciliation agreement between northern rebel groups and Bamako, as well as its efforts towards restoring state writ.
Mali’s ruling junta, which took power in 2020, in June asked the mission to leave, which for the past decade has kept around 15,000 soldiers and police in the country.
Hundreds of MINUSMA members have been killed in the country, mostly blamed on armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic state group.
Guterres also paid tribute to the 311 MINUSMA personnel who lost their lives and the more than 700 who were wounded in maintenance of peace.
Violence has griped the poor country, spilling over into neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso and inflaming ethnic tensions. Thousands of fighters and civilians have been killed and millions have been displaced in the Africa state.
