The United Nations’ most expensive mission (1,100 million euros each year) and the deadliest (300 blue helmets killed in the line of duty) will come to an abrupt end. Mali’s putschist junta has decided to remove MINUSMA’s blue helmets from the country. Quota is formed 17,400 troops deployed across the region of this sub-Saharan state grappling with jihadist terrorism, Tuareg rebel groups and the violence of Russian Wagner mercenaries. By year’s end, 11,739 blue-helmeted, 1,600 police and nearly 4,000 civilians should have left the peacekeeping mission.
Mali’s president, Assimi Goita, accuses the blue helmets of not being strong enough in the fight against terrorism. There are too many concerns and human rights restrictions. Prefers alliance Russiasending soldiers of weapons and supplies and wealth.
They leave military outposts and bases that will be occupied by soldiers of the Mali Armed Forces or other support groups, such as Russian soldiers. Humanitarian organizations are sounding the alarm: complete chaos could ensue.
“The government has requested the United Nations to implement the seventh part of the mission’s mandate, which requires the use of force against armed groups. They wanted MINUSMA to be some kind of counter-terrorism force,” he explains from Bamako (Mali’s capital). Vianney Bisimva, Sahel Director of the Civilian Protection NGO CIVIC. “What will happen now while they’re gone? There is currently no clear transition plan for who will occupy permanent United Nations bases and military posts.” The expert fears a “vacuum.” If this “gap” is not filled, there is a great risk that attacks will increase, civilian anxiety will increase and instability will increase.
The situation is very important for Spain. Mali is located 1,800 kilometers from the Canary coast. Insecurity of this country and surrounding areas To promote the Atlantic irregular migration route. This is why Spain insisted on including the Sahel in its NATO strategy for the next ten years.
massacres and rapes
The United Nations mission in Mali was established by a Security Council resolution in April 2013. All-out war between the government of this sub-Saharan country and armed groups, many of them jihadist and others, Tuaregs from the north.
In 2015, some of these groups signed the Algerian Peace Agreement. But the violence continued. Attempts to build democracy in the country have gone awry. There were two coups in 2020 and 2021. Russia and China stepped in. Second, with investments. First, the dispatch of military trainers, weapons, logistics… It had no limits or restrictions. Accusations of extrajudicial killing or rape as a weapon of war spread throughout the country. In 2012, a diplomatic confrontation took place between Bamako and New York, marking the beginning of the Mali government’s decline in relations with the United Nations.
In May, the UN released a devastating report that more than 500 people had been killed in the country’s central city of Moura. shown as responsible. Government Armed Forces and the “foreign army”. Additional reports from organizations such as Human Rights Watch suggest these are Russian soldiers. “PMC” Wagner. They besieged the city for several days in search of jihadists. They were executing men who refused to cooperate or whom they considered terrorists, in small groups of more than 500. Executions, torture and rape, according to the UN. Bamako had prevented the United Nations from flying over the area to gather evidence, but satellite imagery was used. The military junta described it as a “crime of espionage”. Relationships were broken. From those mud came the current mud.
At the same time, the Mali government continued to charge up against the other major foreign military contingent trying to stabilize the country: the French-led Operation Barkhane. they were half a hundred French soldiers died In addition to more than seventy people from Mali or Nigeria in eight years of tenure. A Spanish soldier was also killed in the operation. After continued attacks and failure on the ground, Emmanuel Macron ordered the withdrawal of this key military force last summer.
On June 16 this year, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali delivered a devastating speech at the Security Council. MINUSMO said, it wasn’t just a “failure”, it was also “part of the problem” demanded that security in the country “withdraw without further delay”. Last Friday, the Security Council voted to end this mission after ten years in the country. Now, the Government and the United Nations are negotiating how to withdraw. There are thousands of soldiers and police, but also helicopters, armored vehicles, guns… There will be several weeks of intense conversations from today until December 31st of this year where a plan for the withdrawal of all troops must be made. Vianney Bisimwa explains that you need to decide what to do with humanitarian projects, from UNICEF to the United Nations development program. Among other things, who will protect them when they go on a humanitarian mission to dangerous parts of the country.
Spanish mission in Mali
The departure of MINUSMA’s French troops now and last year surpasses EUTM, the European Union’s training operation involving Spain, as the only international mission in Mali. But this is not a combat mission and has been reduced to a minimum. Our country He maintains a 120-strong troop at his base in Bamako. Germany has already announced that it will take EUTM soldiers out of the country next year. But EUTM’s days may be numbered. According to the Europa Press report, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said, “The MINUSMA march complicates our lives.” “Now we have to think about what to do.”
This is what finances look like In the hands of the Russian-backed military junta government, among others. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that he will continue to assist the country. Mali’s president is going to Moscow at the end of this month as part of the Russia-Africa summit. And as the junta throws itself into Russia’s arms, the unstable peace deal with some northern factions is in danger of bursting. The political movement CSP-PSD, which united the rebel groups in the north and signed the Algerian agreement, told the Russian ambassador it feared that Wagner’s mercenaries would launch attacks on areas they control in the north. They also accuse Bamako of completely violating its part of the agreements, which includes the integration of 26,000 CSP-PSD fighters into the Armed Forces. The hornet’s nest in the Sahel is resurgent, with Mali at its epicenter.