UN Security Council announces end of mission in Mali Extreme heat claims more than 100 lives in Mexico

The UN Security Council has taken the initiative to end the mission in West African Mali. The mission, which has been in existence since 2013, should end at the end of the year after a six-month transition period, the Council decided in a resolution passed unanimously in New York on Friday. The mandate of the mission, which also involves the Bundeswehr, expired on Friday and was only extended by six months with a resolution mandate by resolution.

In mid-June, Mali’s military government demanded the withdrawal of all approximately 12,000 UN peacekeepers. Germany, which had previously decided to end its participation in the mission, had previously planned to withdraw its approximately 1,100 soldiers by May 31, 2024, following a growing dispute with the military government of Mali over surveillance drone flying rights, but was also prepared for a faster recording.

For peacekeeping missions, the United Nations is dependent on the permission of the country in question. Typically, throughout United Nations history, peacekeeping missions have ended by agreement with the respective government of the country of operation when they are no longer needed there because the purpose of their operation has been achieved.

Mali’s military junta led by Colonel Assimi Goïta justified the demand for the immediate withdrawal of all UN blue helmets on the grounds that the mission no longer served any purpose. “It is impossible to keep the peace in a situation where there is no peace to keep,” it said in a statement in mid-June. The UN mission reversed its mandate to support the Malian authorities. Speaking at UN headquarters in New York, Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop accused the blue helmets of becoming “part of the problem” and called for the “immediate withdrawal” of the mission.

The UN mission to stabilize the country has been active in Mali since 2013 after Islamist terrorists invaded the north of the country on the edge of the Sahara in 2012 following the collapse of neighboring Libya and an uprising by the nomadic Tuareg. A military intervention by the former colonial power France only temporarily pushed back the Islamists, some of whom were affiliated with the terrorist militias IS and al-Qaeda. Since then, the terrorist groups have spread in northern and central Mali and neighboring countries.

The army seized power in two coups in 2020 and 2021 in the Sahel country of about 23 million people and turned to Russia, from where it promised stronger aid against the Islamists. While the military junta speaks only of trainers, there are an estimated 2,000 Russian Wagner mercenaries active in the country. France then ended its military operation. (sda/dpa)