(Reuters) – According to a statement from the United Nations, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, is set to finish its withdrawal from the country on Sunday.
Experts in security have raised concerns that the area could now become the focal point of a struggle in the north as rebel groups and the army vie for control of areas that the U.N. has vacated, potentially further destabilizing Mali. This is particularly worrisome given the presence of Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in the country.
Violence in Mali has seen a marked increase since June, when the military junta that seized power in a 2021 coup ordered the U.N.’s decade-old peacekeeping mission to depart.
The U.N. noted that only a small team will remain behind to oversee the transportation of assets and disposal of U.N.-owned equipment.
“U.N. funds, agencies and programmes were in Mali well before the deployment of MINUSMA and will stay in Mali well after the withdrawal,” MINUSMA chief El-Ghassum Wane stated.
The peacekeeping mission in Mali was initiated in 2013 in response to a violent insurrection by separatist rebels seeking to take control of the northern part of the country, followed by a military-led coup.
Since then, Mali has become the epicenter of a violent movement that has spread throughout West Africa and resulted in millions of people being displaced.
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams and Hugh Lawson)
