Editor TLN
July 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
At least three people have died in an attack perpetrated against a logistics convoy of the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA), as reported this Friday by the contingent itself, which is already facing its final withdrawal at the end of the year after the recent escalation of the political battle with the Malian government.
MINUSMA has explained on Twitter that one of its convoys was the target of two attacks on Thursday in the Ansongo area, in the eastern part of the African country. The first of these incidents resulted in “three deaths and 11 civilian injuries, including two seriously” who were evacuated by the mission. The ‘blue helmets’ “responded to the two attacks without registering losses.”
The UN Security Council approved a resolution at the end of June that established the end of a mission that currently has some 13,000 troops. The Malian military junta, headed by Assimi Goita, had demanded the “immediate” departure of the troops and this week they received the withdrawal plan from MINUSMA.
Bamako’s relations with MINUSMA were affected by a UN report on the massacre of more than 500 people in March 2022 in the city of Moura (downtown), which pointed to the Army as the main culprit. The Government “firmly” rejected the report and assured that the images obtained by satellite by the investigators constitute a crime of “espionage.”
Goita had already focused on MINUSMA in recent months, demanding greater collaboration with the Army when carrying out its operations against the terrorist threat, especially by the branches of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in the region. .
The mission has deployed ‘blue helmets’ in the country since 2013, although relations have deteriorated as a result of the Goita-led coups in August 2020 and May 2021 and the postponements by the junta at the time to set an electoral calendar for a democratic transition.
