GENEVA (United Nations): The United Nations is reeling from what Secretary-General António Guterres calls an “unprecedented” six-month withdrawal from Mali at the behest of the West African nation’s military junta, which has brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help in the fight. Islamic insurgency.
The UN Special Envoy for Mali El-Ghassim Wane presented the scope of the operation to the UN Security Council on Monday: All 12,947 UN peacekeepers and police must be sent home. There are 12 camps and one temporary base that will be handed over to the government, and 1,786 civilian employees services will be finished by December 31.
Mali’s UN ambassador Issa Konfourou said the government was cooperating with the UN peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, but would not extend the deadline.
The United Nations also needs to move out about 5,500 shipping containers of equipment and 4,000 vehicles belonging to the U.N. and countries that have sent personnel to MINUSMA, the fourth largest of a dozen U.N. peacekeeping operations, Wane said.
That process has begun but will continue during a “decommissioning” period that will begin on January 1, 2024 and last 18 months, with the UN policing three centers in the capital Bamako, Gao and Timbuktu, where the facility is located. gathering.
Mali has been in turmoil since a military coup in 2012, after which rebels in the north formed Daesh two months later.
Extremist rebels were pushed out in the north by a French-led military operation, but moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali in 2015 and remain active.
In August 2020, the President of Mali was overthrown in a coup that included an army colonel who staged a second coup and was sworn in as president in June 2021. He established ties to the Russian army and the Wagner group, whose head was Yevgeny Prigozhin. died last week in a plane crash on a flight from Moscow.
The UN sent peacekeepers in 2013 and MINUSMA became the deadliest UN mission in the world with over 300 people killed.
Security Council members were sent a 13-page document on Monday in which, Guterres said the “timeline, scope and complexity of the withdrawal of the mission are unprecedented”.
He said the landlocked country’s “vast terrain, hostile operating environment in certain regions, and its climate make withdrawing the mission in a six-month time frame extremely challenging.”
Guterres said the logistics of moving troops and equipment are further constrained by the presence of “terrorist armed groups” and the recent military takeover of Niger, a key transit country.
In a report last week, U.N. experts said Islamic State extremists have nearly doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year, and that their rival Al Qaeda affiliate is also benefiting from the stalemate and perceived weakness of the armed groups that signed the peace deal. from 2015.
UN High Commissioner Wane told the Security Council that the first phase of the withdrawal focused on the closure of the smallest and most remote bases – Menaka, Ber, Goundam and the temporary base at Ogossagou – which was completed on 25 August.
The withdrawal from Beru took place two days earlier due to clashes in the camp and UN convoys leaving the camp were attacked without casualties.
Mali’s Konfourou said “armed terrorist groups took a hostile action to prevent Malian security and armed forces from occupying the camp” in Ber.
France’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Nathalie Broadhurst, told the council that the clashes in Bero were “with the participation of Wagner mercenaries” and were a serious violation of the 2015 ceasefire and peace agreement.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield also expressed concern over the resumption of hostilities in northern Mali, including Ber.
“In addition, the withdrawal of MINUSMA limits the ability of the international community to protect civilians from the predations of Wagner, whose activities contribute to greater insecurity in the country,” she said.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky did not mention Wagner but said: “Russia will continue to provide comprehensive assistance to Mali and other interested African partners on a bilateral, equal and mutually respectful basis.”
UN High Commissioner Wane said the second and final phase of the troop drawdown, starting on September 1, “will be incredibly difficult” because of the long distances that convoys evacuating troops and equipment must cover, even through hostile territory – 563 kilometers in the case of Camp Tessalit.
Wane stressed that the withdrawal comes at a time when a 2015 peace deal between the government, pro-government militias and a coalition of autonomy-seeking groups in northern Mali is paralyzed.
“This agreement is a cornerstone of Mali’s long-term stabilization,” he said.
