NEW YORK
\nThe United Nations is in the throes of what Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres calls an \u201cunprecedented\u201d six-month exit from Mali on orders of the West African nation\u2019s military junta, which has brought in mercenaries from Russia\u2019s Wagner Group to help fight an Islamic insurgency.
\nThe UN special envoy for Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, laid out the scale of the operation to the UN Security Council on Monday: All 12,947 UN peacekeepers and police must be sent home, their 12 camps and one temporary base handed over to the government, and 1,786 civilian staff terminated by the Dec. 31 deadline.
\nMali\u2019s UN Ambassador Issa Konfourou said the government is cooperating with the UN peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, but it will not extend the deadline.
\nThe United Nations also needs to move out approximately 5,500 sea containers of equipment and 4,000 vehicles that belong to the UN and the countries that contributed personnel to MINUSMA, the fourth largest of the UN\u2019s dozen peacekeeping operations, Wane said.
\nThat process has begun but will continue during a \u201cliquidation\u201d period that will begin on Jan. 1, 2024 and last for 18 months, with the UN keeping police in the three hubs in the capital, Bamako, Gao and Timbuktu where the equipment is being gathered.
\nMali has been in turmoil since a 2012 military coup which was followed by rebels in the north forming a Daesh two months later.
\nThe extremist rebels were forced from power in the north with the help of a French-led military operation, but they moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali in 2015 and remain active.
\nIn August 2020, Mali\u2019s president was overthrown in a coup that included an army colonel who carried out a second coup and was sworn in as president in June 2021. He developed ties to Russia\u2019s military and the Wagner group whose head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was reportedly killed in a plane crash on a flight from Moscow last week.
\nThe UN deployed peacekeepers in 2013 and MINUSMA has become the most dangerous UN mission in the world, with more than 300 personnel killed.
\nIn a 13-page letter to Security Council members circulated Monday, Guterres said \u201cthe timeline, scope and complexity of the mission\u2019s withdrawal are unprecedented.\u201d
\nHe said the landlocked country\u2019s \u201cvast terrain, the hostile operating environment in certain regions and its climates render the mission\u2019s withdrawal within a six-month time frame extremely challenging.\u201d
\nGuterres said the logistics of moving troops and equipment is further constrained by the presence of \u201cterrorist armed groups\u201d and the recent military takeover of Niger, a key transit country.
\nUN experts said in a report last week that Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year, and that their Al-Qaeda-linked rivals are also capitalizing on the deadlock and perceived weakness of armed groups that signed a 2015 peace agreement.
\nUN envoy Wane told the Security Council that the first phase of the withdrawal focused on closing the smallest and furthest outposts Menaka, Ber, Goundam and the temporary base in Ogossagou which was completed on Aug. 25.
\nThe withdrawal from Ber took place two days early because of clashes at the camp, and UN convoys leaving the camp were attacked, with no casualties.
\nMali\u2019s Konfourou said \u201carmed terrorist groups took hostile action to prevent the Malian security and armed forces from occupying the camp\u201d at Ber.
\nFrance\u2019s deputy UN ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst told the council the clashes in Ber occurred \u201cwith the participation of Wagner mercenaries\u201d and were a serious violation of a cease-fire and the 2015 peace agreement.
\nUS Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield also expressed alarm at the resumption of hostilities in northern Mali, including at Ber.
\n\u201cAdditionally, MINUSMA\u2019s withdrawal limits the ability of the international community to protect civilians from the predations of Wagner, whose activities contribute to greater insecurity in the country,\u201d she said.
\nRussia\u2019s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky made no mention of Wagner but said, \u201cRussia will continue to provide Mali and other interested African partners with comprehensive assistance on a bilateral, equal and mutually respectful basis.\u201d
\nUN envoy Wane said the second and final phase of the troop withdrawal starting Sept.1 \u201cwill be incredibly difficult\u201d because of the long distances that convoys evacuating troops and equipment need to travel, including through hostile areas 563 kilometers in the case of the Tessalit camp.
\nWane stressed that the withdrawal is taking place as the 2015 peace agreement between the government, a pro-government militia and a coalition of groups seeking autonomy in Mali\u2019s north is paralyzed.
\n\u201cThat agreement is the cornerstone of Mali\u2019s long-term stabilization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK The United Nations is in the throes of what Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres calls an \u201cunprecedented\u201d six-month exit from Mali on orders of the West African nation\u2019s military junta, which has brought in mercenaries from Russia\u2019s Wagner Group to help fight an Islamic insurgency. The UN special envoy for Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, laid out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-352545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n