Mali

Abandoned buildings at the Barclay training center in downtown Monrovia, a notorious meeting point for drug dealers and users. Here, a suspect is identified and searched for drugs and weapons. (2008)
UNMIL Photo/Christopher Herwig

Crime and drugs in West and Central Africa: Security Council highlights 'new alarming trends’

19 December 2018
Law and Crime Prevention

West and Central Africa faces “disruptive and destabilising” new trends regarding drug trafficking, drug use and other crimes, according to Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), who briefed the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

A CH-147 Chinook helicopter takes off while Canadian UN peacekeepers protect themselves from dust during a medical evacuation exercise around Gao in Mali.
MINUSMA/Marco Dormino

Mali: UN Peacekeeping chief ‘extremely concerned’ over insecurity, regrets peace deal delays

19 October 2018
Peace and Security

After commending the “overall peaceful” climate in which the Malian elections were held in July, the United Nations peacekeeping chief said on Friday that he is “extremely concerned” over the increasing number of attacks by armed insurgents, against a backdrop of continued delays in implementing the 2015 peace agreement.

A woman and her child in the IDP village near Mopti. The village is located on the outskirts of town and hosts around forty families, most of whom fled the Timbuktu region.
UN Photo/Marco Dormino

UN chief celebrates spirit of hope in Mali, calls for greater international support

26 September 2018
Peace and Security

Climate change, poverty, violence… As countless challenges hamper the stability and development of Mali and the Sahel region, a high-level event on Wednesday explored progress made in the implementation of the UN Support Plan for the Sahel (UNSS), and galvanized renewed commitment for the Malian peace process initiated in 2015.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of the Republic of Mali addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

At UN Assembly, Mali’s president gives heartfelt thanks for UN’s help in bringing stability

26 September 2018
Peace and Security

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.

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Ursula Mueller meets women in Mopti during her visit to Mali.
UN OCHA

Food, security and peace desperately needed in Mali – UN deputy relief chief

31 August 2018
Humanitarian Aid

A senior United Nations relief official has called for greater international attention to the plight of millions in Africa’s Mali, where worsening intercommunal violence and armed group attacks are complicating an already complex humanitarian emergency.

Ahead of Mali's 2018 presidential elections, this young women is picking up her new voter's card at an electoral station in Gao, in the country's north.
MINUSMA

Mali: Any dispute over key Sunday vote must be resolved peacefully, says UN envoy

27 July 2018
Peace and Security

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”.

A MINUSMA convoy drives along a street Menaka, north-eastern Mali. The region has witnessed a sharp escalation in violence and insecurity.
MINUSMA/Marco Dormino

Mali facing ‘alarming’ rise in rights violations, warns UN expert

4 July 2018
Human Rights

In Mali, a senior United Nations rights expert on Wednesday described an “alarming” deterioration of the security, human rights and humanitarian situation in northern and eastern areas of the country.

Walls of a building, which once housed a court, riddled with holes caused by heavy artillery in Gao, Mali. (file photo)
MINUSMA/Marco Dormino

UN chief condemns attack targeting international forces in northern Mali

1 July 2018
Peace and Security

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned an attack in Gao, northern Mali, targeting international forces that left at least two civilians dead and over fifteen injured.

Peacekeepers serving with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) secure an intersection in Mopti, Mali. (file photo)
MINUSMA Photo

UN condemns deadly attack against G5 Sahel force headquarters in Mali

30 June 2018
Peace and Security

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the attack against the G5 Sahel joint force Headquarters in Mali’s restive Mopti region.

Drought has affected residents of the Mbera refugee camp, Mauritania, in the Sahel region of Africa.
WFP/Justin Smith

UN launches plan to promote peace, inclusive growth in Africa’s Sahel

30 June 2018
SDGs

The United Nations has launched a major support plan to promote sustainable peace and inclusive growth as well as empower women and youth in Africa's vast Sahel region.