between Mali and the UN mission, divorce has become inevitable

Final battle for the Minusma. The Security Council of the United Nations immediately put an end, on Friday June 30, to the peacekeeping mission of the blue berets in Mali, a withdrawal that was demanded by Bamako.

The unanimously adopted resolution puts an end to the mission “as of June 30” and stipulates that As of July 1, the peacekeeping forces will cease their activities to organize their departure “before December 31.”formalizing the end of the mission deployed since 2013 to support the political process in this country and protect civilians.

“Realism requires observing the failure of the Minusma, whose mandate does not respond to security challenges,” denounced the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, on June 16, claiming, two weeks before the deadline for the renewal of the mission, the “immediate withdrawal” of the United Nations force.

After intense negotiations, the two parties finally agreed on an accelerated exit within six months, a break that occurs in a context of tensions between the military in power and the UN body and while the country continues to face a serious crisis. of security.

Stabilization mission after the 2013 crisis

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (Minusma) was created as a result of the French military intervention in January 2013. Promoted by President François Hollande at the request of the Malian authorities, Operation Serval sought to counter the advance of a coalition of Tuaregs and radical Islamists towards Bamako.

But while serious security threats persist, particularly in the North, the interim president, Dioncounda Traoré, calls on the UN to establish a stabilization and peacekeeping operation in the country, officially created on April 25, 2013.

Record of human losses

The mission of the Minusma, made up of 11,700 military personnel and 1,600 police officers from more than 55 countries, consists of protecting the population, preventing the return of armed elements to their strongholds and supporting the restoration of State authority throughout the territory. However, the fulfillment of its mandate comes up against the deterioration of the security environment, which degrades.

Operation Barkhane, launched in August 2014 to curb the terrorist threat throughout the Sahel, is fighting to cope with its 5,000 men in this vast territory of three million square kilometers. Confined for a time to the North, the terrorist threat is gaining ground in the center, in the area of ​​the “three borders” (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger). Islamist armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization are increasing their attacks against the civilian population and the blue helmets that are supposed to protect it.

Since 2015, Minusma has held the sad record for the highest number of human losses within UN missions, ahead of the operation in Darfur. As of June 30, 2023, the organization has counted 174 staff members killed in attacks, since the mission began ten years ago.

Lawsuit of ineffectiveness

If differences of opinion already existed behind the scenes between the government of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and the UN, relations have seriously deteriorated since the military came to power due to two coups, in August 2020 and then in May 2020. 2021.

The new leaders have openly criticized on several occasions the “inefficiency” of the Minusma, incapable of “giving adequate responses to the security situation in Mali.”

In recent years, the mission’s mandate has been strengthened on several occasions, at the request of the Malian authorities, to go beyond a traditional peacekeeping mission. But even if it authorizes proactive measures, particularly for the protection of civilians, the Minusma must act in support of the Army and does not pretend to be an anti-terrorist force.

If he says he is “perfectly aware” of this reality, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, considers that the “maintenance prospects” of the Minusma “do not meet the security requirements of Malians.”

Peace agreement at half mast

Since 2015, the UN force is also supposed to support the implementation of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, signed in Algiers, which should allow a political solution with the northern rebel groups. However, here again, the situation is stagnating.

“This deal is now on hold. We have seen a deterioration in the relationship between the government and the signatory armed groups, which have not sat on the agreement’s monitoring committee for several months”, analyzes Niagalé Bagayoko, a political scientist, president of the African Network of the Security Sector.

While the military in power accuse the Minusma of meddling in the internal affairs of the country, the armed groups that are signatories to the agreement, on the contrary, defend their actions. The Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), which brings together these main groups, considered that the departure of the UN force would be “a fatal blow deliberately directed against the Peace Agreement”.

Conflict over human rights

Among the main points of contention between the UN force and Mali’s transitional authorities is the issue of human rights. In addition to its 13,000 soldiers and police, Minusma has a civilian component of 1,800 people, including investigators who list abuses committed in the country. Thus, several reports have been published warning about the progression of terrorist groups but also about crimes attributable to the Malian forces, the forces of the Russian Wagner militia – deployed in the country at the request of the Malian authorities – or even the French army.

The Malian authorities, who have made sovereignty the spearhead of their policy, take a very dim view of the accusations against their soldiers. They accuse the UN of politicizing the issue of human rights to “discredit” the Malian armed forces. In February they ordered the expulsion of the director of the Minusma human rights division, for “destabilizing and subversive acts.”

In this context of strong mistrust, the publication, in May 2023, of the report on the Moura massacre had a bomb effect. The investigators conclude there that at least 500 people died during the intervention of Malian soldiers and “foreign soldiers” -in a note towards Wagner’s militiamen- from March 27 to 31, 2022 in this village in the center of the country, in an area controlled by the Al-Qaeda affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM).

In response, the Malian authorities announced the opening of an investigation against Minusma for “espionage” and “attacking the external security of the State”, denouncing the “clandestine” use of satellite images. At the same time, they have multiplied the demonstrations in Bamako to demand the departure of the UN force, fueled by hostile campaigns on social networks.

“Already last year, the renewal of the mission was carried out on the fly, due to an evident lack of confidence on the part of the authorities, who consider it too close to France”, analyzes the Malian journalist Malick Konate. “However, the Malian authorities did not plan to request the withdrawal of the Minusma in June 2023. They wanted to modify its prerogatives to make it more offensive militarily and less focused on human rights. There is no doubt that Moura’s report, two months before the mission’s annual renewal deadline acted as a trigger,” adds Konate.

During negotiations with the Malian authorities, the UN agreed to a full withdrawal by January 2024, and not within 18 months, as is usual in this type of mission.

“Until then, Minusma will focus on leaving and will no longer have a political mandate or an investigation into the issue of human rights,” said Carrie Nooten, a France 24 correspondent in New York. “Finally, starting in October, it will no longer be authorized to defend civilians. Only under these conditions have Malian diplomats, supported by Russia, been satisfied, ”she indicates.

*Article adapted from its original in French