Mali calls for withdrawal of UN peacekeeping mission 'without delay'

The country's military rulers have increasingly imposed operational restrictions on peacekeepers

Mali's foreign minister called Friday for the UN Security Council to withdraw the peacekeeping mission in his country "without delay," denouncing its "failure" to respond to security challenges.

The country's military rulers have increasingly imposed operational restrictions on peacekeepers and also broke Mali's longstanding alliance with former colonial power France. "The government of Mali calls for the withdrawal without delay of Minusma," the name of the UN force in Mali, said Abdoulaye Diop.

"However, the government is willing to cooperate with the United Nations on this issue," Diop said, rejecting all options for changing the mandate of the mission as proposed by the UN secretary-general.

"Minusma seems to have become part of the problem by fueling community tensions exacerbated by extremely serious allegations which are highly detrimental to peace, reconciliation and national cohesion in Mali," said the minister.

"This situation generates a feeling of distrust among the populations with regard to Minusma," he added, noting a recent damning report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on an anti-jihadist operation in Moura in March 2022.

UN chief Antonio Guterres in January put forward three options for amending the mission, from an increase in personnel to a withdrawal of troops.

In a report published at the beginning of the week, he recommended to the Council an intermediate solution, to "reconfigure" the mission to concentrate on a limited number of priorities.