Africa

Mali demands before the UN Security Council the withdrawal of MINUSMA

Mali demands before the UN Security Council the withdrawal of MINUSMA

The foreign minister rejects the “spying” by satellite of UN investigators on the report of the Moura massacre

June 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali, Abdoulaye Diop, has demanded this Friday before the Security Council of the United Nations the “withdrawal without delay” of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), led by El Ghassim Wane .

“MINUSMA seems to become part of the problem by fueling community tensions exacerbated by extremely serious accusations and which are very detrimental to peace, reconciliation and national cohesion in Mali,” he explained.

Diop has stated that the MINUSMA mandate “does not respond to the security challenge” in the country, and although they have requested the withdrawal of the mission, he has assured shortly after that the Malian authorities “are willing to cooperate with the United Nations”. .

“This situation generates a feeling of mistrust among the population with respect to MINUSMA and a crisis of confidence between the Malian authorities and the mission,” he stressed before the Security Council, according to a speech published on his Twitter profile.

Diop has also rejected all initiatives by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres to reform MINUSMA’s mandate in an attempt to ease tensions with Bamako, which in February ousted the director of the mission’s Human Rights office, Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Anda, for “destabilizing and subversive” activities.

The country’s relations with the mission have also been affected by a UN report on the massacre of more than 500 people in March 2022 in the city of Moura (center), which pointed to the Army as the main culprit.

“The government vigorously rejects the conclusions of this biased report,” Diop explained to the United Nations Security Council, adding that the images obtained by satellite by the researchers constitute a crime of “espionage.”

Likewise, the Malian Foreign Minister, who spent a few minutes describing the work of the Armed Forces during the massacre, reiterated Bamako’s opposition to “any attempt to instrumentalize and politicize Human Rights.”

The leader of the Malian military junta, Assimi Goita, had already focused on MINUSMA in recent months, demanding greater collaboration with the Army when carrying out its operations. 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.

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