UN peacekeeping mission in Mali officially ends after 10 years

The United Nations mis­sion in Mali has officially ended a 10-year deploy­ment in the country, its spokesper­son said in a pullout ordered by Mali’s military government.

The mission, known as the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabi­lisation Mission in Mali (MINUS­MA), lowered the UN flag in its headquarters in the capital, Bama­ko, its spokesperson, Fatoumata Kaba, told the AFP news agency on Monday.

The symbolic ceremony marks the official end of the mission, she said, even though some of the elements of it are still there.

A “liquidation phase” will take place after January 1, involving activities such as handing over any remaining equipment to the authorities.

In June, Mali’s military gov­ernment, which seized power in 2020, demanded the departure of the mission, deployed since 2013, despite being in the grip of attacks by armed groups in the Sahel region.

The withdrawal of MINUS­MA troops has ignited fears that fighting will intensify between Malian forces and armed groups for territorial control.

The mission had maintained about 15,000 soldiers and police in Mali for the past decade. About 180 members have been killed in hostile acts.

As of Friday, more than 10,500 uniformed and civilian MINUS­MA personnel had left Mali, out of a total of about 13,800 staff at the start of the withdrawal, the UN mission said on X, the plat­form formerly known as Twitter.

Since being told to leave, MI­NUSMA has left 13 positions in Mali and has yet to close sites in Gao and Timbuktu in the north.

—Aljazeera

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