The UN peacekeeping operation in Mali is poised to complete its drawdown on Sunday following a decade of multifaceted efforts to support the West African nation and its people after Malian authorities requested earlier this year to end the mission by 31 December.
While its peacekeeping operation in Mali, MINUSMA draws to a close by the end of this year, the UN remains committed to supporting the country’s stability and development, the head of the Mission said on Monday.
With a deteriorating security situation in central and northern Mali, the UN peacekeeping chief told the Security Council on Tuesday that ‘blue helmets’, the Malian Defence and Security Forces, continue to suffer repeated attacks and significant losses, while some large towns “live under constant threat from armed groups”.
A 2015 peace deal for Mali has led to a “progressive return of trust between parties”, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday evening.
Voicing great concern over a sharp increase in the killing and maiming of children in Mali due to ongoing fighting and instability, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and partners on Tuesday, called on all warring parties to stop attacks and “keep them out of harm’s way”.
Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, whose West African country has benefitted from a 15,000-strong United Nations Stabilization Force (MINUSMA) to bring peace after Tuareg rebels and militant Islamists devastated its northern and central regions, mounted the General Assembly podium on Wednesday to thank the world Organization for “its immense and multi-dimensional” support.
With key presidential elections in Mali just two days away, the top United Nations official there on Friday stressed that candidates must accept the results and ensure that the democratic process in Mali is “irreversible”.
On the second day of his visit to Mali, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres travelled some 460 kilometers outside the capital, Bamako, to Mopti, where he highlighted how insecurity in the region is threatening the country’s fragile peace process.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Mali on Tuesday, to honour the service and sacrifice of peacekeepers around the world, and mark the official International Day of UN Peacekeepers.
On the eve of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers this Tuesday, in the dimly lit streets of Bamako, the Malian police set out to conduct a night patrol with the support of UN police officers.
