UN Security Council votes to end Mali mission

Decision follows Malian Foreign Minister's call for UN to leave 'without delay'

A Minusma soldier in Mali adjusts a flag on the roof of a vehicle in Menaka. AFP

The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution to end a decade-long peacekeeping mission in Mali after the West African country's junta abruptly asked the force to leave earlier this month.

The dismantling of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission (Minusma) in Mali will begin on July 1, with “the cessation of its operations, transfer of its tasks, as well as the orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal of its personnel” to be concluded by the end of the year.

The vote followed Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop's demand on June 16 that the UN immediately withdraw peacekeepers from the country, calling Minusma a “failure”.

The French-drafted resolution calls on the transitional government of Mali to “co-operate fully with the United Nations during Minusma’s drawdown, withdrawal and liquidation to ensure the orderly and safe withdrawal of the mission”.

While the three African members on the Security Council – Ghana, Mozambique and Gabon – welcomed the end of the peacekeeping mission, the US warned the transitional government's decision to abandon Minusma would bring “harm” to the Malian people.

The Malian armed forces are collaborating with the Russia-backed Wagner Group, the mercenaries heavily involved in the war in Ukraine who engaged in a mutiny against Moscow last week, to help them tackle terror groups in the country.

UK ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, stressed that Mali's partnership with the Wagner Group would not “deliver long term stability or security” for the Malian people.

The US accused Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin of helping to engineer the departure of UN peacekeepers from Mali.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday that Washington has information indicating Mali's transitional government has paid more than $200 million to Wagner since late 2021.

Relations between the UN and Mali's military leaders have been steadily deteriorating since the junta took power following two coups in 2020 and 2021.

Mali's military has increasingly imposed operational restrictions on the UN peacekeepers. They were also angered by a UN report in May that accused the army and “armed white men” of killing 500 civilians in the town of Moura last year.

The 13,000-strong mission was sent to Mali by the Security Council in 2013 to support efforts to restore stability in the country after al Qaeda-linked insurgents took over parts of the North in 2012.