Mali

Germany will be the largest provider of troops in Mali following the UN's decision to extend its peace mission in Mali.

The UN Security Council agreed Wednesday to extend a peacekeeping mission in Mali another year — but without French air support as in the past, compounding the risk for one of its deadliest peacekeeping operations.

Malians are fleeing to nearby Mauritania to escape from bandits, fighters, the army and now Russian operatives.

Eight UN peacekeepers were wounded Thursday in a mine explosion in Mali’s jihadist-wracked Timbuktu region, the United Nations said.

The Secretary-General issued a statement on Wednesday expressing his shock and outrage over reports that well over a hundred civilians have been killed in the past week, during attacks by armed extremists in central Mali, and further north.

The Secretary-General strongly condemned on Sunday, an attack in Kidal, a city in northern Mali, against a convoy of UN peacekeepers that claimed the life of a blue helmet.

[…] As the UN Security Council (UNSC) prepares to renew MINUSMA’s mandate later this month, it’s worth examining why previous efforts to reduce the threat to civilians have been insufficient.

French troops were on Monday handing back a military base in northeastern Mali ahead of a final withdrawal from the Sahel nation, France’s army said, after nine years fighting a jihadist insurgency. The UN emissary there warned that the French withdrawal could leave Menaka, where they were based, vulnerable to jihadist attack.

Long-term uncertainty related to the length of the transition period in Mali has made it even more difficult to achieve progress on implementing the 2015 peace agreement, the top UN official in the country told the Security Council. El-Ghassim Wane, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Mali, urged ambassadors to support the renewal of the mandate of the UN Mission there, MINUSMA, which he heads.

[…] To address emerging challenges, enhance the ability of the G5S-JF and sustain its support, this report proposes four possible options that could fill the gap resulting from the current security vacuum being created following the possible withdrawal of some of the external military forces from Mali, and Mali itself from the G5S-JF.