Harare — The United Nations mission concluded its ten-year deployment in Mali, as per the directive of the military administration of Mali, Al Jazeera reports.
The mission, known as the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), lowered the UN flag at its headquarters in the country's capital Bamako on Monday, December 11, 2023 according to UN spokesman Fatoumata Kaba. She said that although certain components of the operation remain, the symbolic event signifies the official conclusion of the project. After January 1, 2024 there will be a "liquidation phase" which involves things like giving the authorities any equipment that is still in use.
Despite being under threat from armed groups in the Sahel, Mali's military government, which took control in 2020, asked in June 2023 that the mission, in place since 2013, withdraw.
Fears that fighting between Malian forces and armed groups for territorial control may grow have been sparked by the withdrawal of MINUSMA soldiers. For the previous ten years, the mission kept around 15,000 soldiers and police in Mali. Approximately 180 or more members have died as a result of hostile activities.
The UN mission said on X, that as of Friday, about 10,500 uniformed and civilian MINUSMA personnel departed Mali, out of a total of roughly 13,800 people at the commencement of the pull out. At first, Malians welcomed the UN forces, believing that the foreign soldiers would aid the Malian military in chasing back the rebels who had taken over significant areas of the country in the north.
But ten years later, the volatility is still very much there, and the peacekeepers are departing without fanfare. The violence resulted in thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Mali's leadership abandoned its affiliation with the old colonial power France after capturing power in August 2020, claiming growing instability. Instead, it chose to forge closer ties with Russia and the private army Wagner Group. In May 2021, there was yet another military coup.
