BAMAKO, Mali
The United Nations’ mission in Mali, forced to pull out of the crisis-wracked country last year, will be completely gone by mid-November, the ruling junta said.
The UN stabilisation mission
(MINUSMA) had been in place since 2013 but ended on December 31 after Mali’s
military leaders ordered it to leave amid deteriorating relations.
It had previously maintained
around 15,000 soldiers and police in the fragile and poor West African nation,
which is in the grip of jihadist violence and other crises.
Under a so-called liquidation
phase since January, the last equipment has been handed over to the authorities
or evacuated, and final contracts wrapped up.
“This phase ends on November
15, 2024 with the handover of the Bamako camp and the repatriation of all
civilian international personnel, contingents and equipment, thus establishing
the definitive withdrawal of MINUSMA,” the council of ministers said in a
statement late Wednesday.
Mali’s ruling junta, which
seized power in a 2020 coup, accused the UN mission of “fuelling community
tensions”.
It also broke off relations
with former colonial ruler France, which had been helping to fight jihadist
insurgents in the north, and since then has turned to Russia for political and
military assistance.
More than 180 MINUSMA members
were killed in attacks, mostly blamed on armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda or the
Islamic State group.
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