As part of its final withdrawal from Mali in December, the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) officially handed over to the national authorities its base in Timbuktu, one of its last camps in a large city in the north of the country.
The MINUSMA posts in Gao and Timbuktu were intended to be the last camps to be handed over to the Malian government after January 1, reports say. However, the security situation in the region, which had seen a resurgence in jihadist attacks, precipitated the early departure of MINUSMA from Timbuktu. “Failing to find a solution to the internal security in Timbuktu, reports say the MINUSMA base had to be closed urgently.
“In the name of the highest authorities of the transition, in the name of the population of the Timbuktu region and my name, I would like to say thank you to MINUSMA for the efforts made within the framework of the return of peace, of living together and social cohesion”, the governor of the region, Bakoun Kanté, was reported as saying during the official handover ceremony, the images of which were broadcast on Thursday on the ORTM television news.
Following months of deteriorating relations, Mali requested the immediate withdrawal of Minusma. The Malian government denounced the failure of Minusma to respond to the security challenges in the country, which had been its key mandate.
The end of the MINUSMA mission in the country comes amidst reports that the Malian government may also be pulling out of the Algiers agreement by which MINUSMA’s mandate was approved. Political commentators say a recent statement by the country’s military ruler, Col. Assimi Goita, announcing the creation of a national and inclusive commission to take control of the peace process and in which he noted that Everything can be negotiated, except territorial integrity, sovereignty and secularism, implied that the government was pulling back on some earlier concessions agreed on.
Eight years into the agreement, a published report says “the parties have not carried out the substantive political and institutional reforms defined in Section II of the agreement, starting with regionalisation. So far, the measures have been temporary or too limited to make any real impact on the ground.”The UN Security Council ended the mission’s mandate on June 30 and gav
The UN Security Council ended the mission’s mandate on June 30 and gave it until December 31 to leave the country.
Since then, MINUSMA, whose numbers have hovered around 15,000 soldiers and police officers more than 180 members of whom have been killed in hostile acts, has staggered the handovers, in sometimes difficult conditions in the north, under pressure from a military escalation between all the armed actors present on the ground.
