The UN Security Council has initiated an end to the mission in West African Mali. The mission, which has existed since 2013, should be ended after a transition period of six months at the end of the year, the Council decided in a unanimously adopted resolution in New York. The mandate of the mission, in which the Bundeswehr is also involved, would have expired this Friday and has now only been extended by the resolution by six months with a resolution mandate.
In mid-June, Mali’s military government demanded the withdrawal of around 12,000 UN peacekeepers. Germany, which had previously decided to end participation in the mission, wanted to withdraw its approximately 1,100 soldiers by May 31, 2024, according to previous plans, after increasing disputes with Mali’s military government about flight rights for surveillance drones, but had already prepared for a quicker withdrawal.
For peacekeeping missions, the United Nations depend on the consent of the respective country. Typically, peacekeeping missions in the history of the United Nations have been terminated in agreement with the respective government of the country of operation when they are no longer needed there because the objective of their operation has been achieved.
Mali’s military junta under Colonel Assimi Goïta justified the demand for the immediate withdrawal of all UN blue helmets with the fact that the mission no longer made any sense. The UN mission reversed its mandate to support the Malian authorities. During an appearance at the UN headquarters in New York, Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop accused the blue helmets of having become “part of the problem” and called for the mission’s “immediate withdrawal”.
Thousands of Wagner mercenaries in Mali
The UN mission to stabilize the country has been active in Mali since 2013 after Islamist terrorists overran the north of the country on the edge of the Sahara in 2012 following the collapse of neighboring Libya and a rebellion by the nomadic Tuareg. A military intervention by the former colonial power France pushed back the Islamists, some of whom were allied with the terrorist militias IS and al-Qaeda, only temporarily. Since then, the terrorist groups have been spreading in the north and center of Mali and in its neighboring countries.
The Malian military took power in two coups in 2020 and 2021 in the Sahel country with around 23 million inhabitants and turned to Russia, which it hoped would provide more robust help against the Islamists. While the military junta only speaks of trainers, it is estimated that up to 2,000 Russian Wagner mercenaries are active in the country. France then ended its military operation.