(Portal) – The United States regrets the decision by Mali’s interim military authorities to order a United Nations peacekeeping force to leave the country, the State Department said on Monday, calling for an “orderly and responsible” withdrawal of the mission.
Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop made the request during a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, citing a “crisis of confidence” between the Malian authorities and the decades-long UN mission called MINUSMA.
“The United States regrets the decision by the Interim Government of Mali to revoke its approval of MINUSMA,” said Matthew Miller, spokesman for the State Department. “MINUSMA’s withdrawal must be orderly and responsible, with the safety of peacekeepers and Malians taking precedence.”
“We are concerned about the impact of this decision on the security and humanitarian crises affecting the Malian people,” he said in a statement.
Mali is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that gained traction after a 2012 uprising. MINUSMA was established by the UN Security Council in 2013 to support foreign and local efforts to restore stability.
Frustration with growing insecurity led to two coups in 2020 and 2021, and the ruling junta increasingly found itself at odds with MINUSMA and other international allies, including France.
The junta has burned bridges with traditional Western allies and turned to Russia for help in expanding its military capabilities.
The United States “will continue to work with our partners in West Africa to help them address the urgent security and governance challenges they face,” Miller said. “We welcome further consultations with regional leaders on additional steps to promote stability and prevent conflict.”
UN Security Council members had begun discussing a draft resolution to extend MINUSMA’s mandate, which expires on June 30. It was unclear what would happen now.
The UN special envoy for Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, said Friday it was “extremely difficult, if not impossible,” to operate in a country without the consent of government authorities.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis)