The West African country’s military leaders have criticized MINUSMA’s “failure” to respond to security challenges.
Mali has urged the United Nations to withdraw its peacekeeping mission from the country “immediately” and denounced the country’s “failure” to respond to security challenges.
Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, one of Mali’s interim military authorities, told a UN Security Council meeting on Friday that the peacekeeping force known as MINUSMA should withdraw its troops from the West African country.
El Ghassim Wane, the head of the UN mission in Mali, said after the meeting of the 15-member council that conducting UN peacekeeping operations without the consent of the host country is “almost impossible”.
“It’s a decision for the council to make,” he told reporters. “But the point I am making, and I think everyone agrees on this, is that peacekeeping is based on the principle of host country consent and, of course, without that consent, operations are almost impossible.”
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said the mission’s mandate will expire at the end of the month.
“The Secretary of State had expressed her concern that the United Nations has been in the country for ten years and the violence and insecurity they should be sending there to stop it has only gotten worse,” she said, reporting from the UN Headquarters in New York City.
“He said this has caused a crisis of confidence for the Malian people. There were protests in Mali demanding the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces.”
The members of the UN Security Council must pass a resolution extending MINUSMA’s mandate by June 30th. This requires at least nine yes votes and no veto by Russia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom or France.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia told the council that the peacekeeping mission could only be successful if there was “very close coordination with the host country and respect for Mali’s sovereignty”.
“The real problem is not the number of peacekeepers, but their tasks, and one of the main tasks of the Malian government is the fight against terrorism, which is not provided for in the blue helmets’ mandate,” said Nebenzia.
The country’s military rulers have increasingly imposed deployment restrictions on the peacekeeping forces and also broken Mali’s long-standing alliance with the former colonial power France.
“The government of Mali is demanding the immediate withdrawal of MINUSMA,” said Diop.
“However, the government is ready to work with the United Nations on this issue,” he added, rejecting all options proposed by the UN Secretary-General for changing the mission’s mandate.
In January, UN chief Antonio Guterres presented three options for changing the mission, ranging from an increase in personnel to a troop withdrawal.
In a report released earlier this week, he recommended an interim solution for the UN Security Council to “reconfigure” the operation and focus on a limited set of priorities.
More than 300 peacekeepers have been killed since the mission began in 2013, making it the deadliest UN mission in the world.
MINUSMA was formed to help stabilize the country after a Tuareg uprising last year led to an ongoing uprising. While the rebels in Mali’s northern cities were being ousted from power by a French-led military operation, they regrouped in the desert and began launching attacks on the Malian army and its allies.
Frustration with growing insecurity led to two coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021, and the ruling military government increasingly found itself at odds with MINUSMA and other international allies, including France.
“MINUSMA appears to have become part of the problem, fueling community tensions exacerbated by extremely serious allegations extremely detrimental to peace, reconciliation and national cohesion in Mali,” Diop said.
“This situation creates a feeling of distrust towards MINUSMA among the population,” he added, referring to a recent damning report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on an anti-rebel operation in Moura in March 2022.
The request comes as the country prepares for Sunday’s elections.
Malians will vote to approve or reject constitutional amendments that would strengthen the president’s powers ahead of the promised transition from military rule back to democracy.
The referendum is the first in a series of planned elections designed to pave the way for the February 2024 presidential elections, which Mali’s military leaders have pledged to hold following pressure from regional powers.