Mali

Le diplomate tchadien quitte Bamako et la Minusma pour devenir le chef du bureau des Nations unies pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest et le Sahel. … „Je pars avec le sentiment que les Maliens comprennent de plus en plus le rôle et la mission de la Minusma. … .“

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of El-Ghassim Wane of Mauritania as his new Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

[…] The election will be held in line with the Transition Charter adopted in September 2020 in the West African country.

Strengthening the social contract, tackling governance failures, and replacing a counterterrorism imperative with a focus on human security are long overdue in the Western Sahel.

Five Sahel countries work together to address common security challenges. The EU's Regional Advisory and Coordination Cell (RACC), a network of European experts, supports the security and defence cooperation of these five “G5 Sahel” countries’ by initiating and facilitating joint regional activities. The civilian and military CSDP Missions deployed in Mali and Niger play the central role in the concrete implementation of these activities.

Less than a week after a key summit gathering of France and its five regional military partners in the Sahel conflict, fresh casualties in Niger offered a reality check to the high-level discourse on achievements.  

Mali's interim Prime Minister Moctar Ouane has created a platform in order to open talks with the Islamist militants who have wreaked havoc in the north of the country. … France, Mali's former colonial power, has 5,000 troops in Mali in order to combat the ongoing insurgency. It has said in the past that it did not agree with Mali opening negotiations with insurgents who did not sign the 2015 peace deal.

The UN Secretary-General has underlined his concern for Africa’s Sahel region, where deteriorating security and violence are aggravating an already difficult humanitarian situation that is unfolding amid the COVID-19 pandemic and climate emergency. António Guterres addressed heads of State from the Group of Five for the Sahel, known by the diplomatic shorthand G5 Sahel’, meeting on Tuesday during their summit this week in Chad. 

President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out an immediate drawdown in France’s 5,100-strong Barkhane forces battling armed groups in the Sahel region of West Africa, describing a rushed exit as a mistake. Macron said he was pushing back a decision on a troop reduction after a virtual summit of the so-called G5 Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger – and their allies to discuss the future of their military campaign in the region.

Chadian forces head to flashpoint border zone between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso as violence rages.