The UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) officially handed over to the national authorities one of its last camps in a large city in the north of the country, Timbuktu, before the end of its final withdrawal, ORTM public television indicated.
The MINUSMA sites of Gao and Timbuktu were the last camps not to have been handed over because it was planned there, after January 1, for what the UN calls the “liquidation” of the mission, i.e. say, for example, handing over the last pieces of equipment to the authorities, or terminating existing contracts.
But the security situation in this region prey to jihadist attacks has precipitated the definitive departure of MINUSMA to Timbuktu. “Failing to have found a solution for the internal security of the MINUSMA base in Timbuktu, this base had to be closed urgently. Arrangements have been made to do this,” a UN source told AFP under cover of ‘anonymity.
“In the name of the highest authorities of the transition, in the name of the population of the Timbuktu region and my name, I would like to say thank you to MINUSMA for the efforts made within the framework of the return of peace, of living together and social cohesion”, declared the governor of the region, Bakoun Kanté, during the official handover ceremony, the images of which were broadcast on Thursday on the ORTM television news.
The colonels who took power by force in 2020 in Bamako demanded in June, after months of deterioration in relations, the immediate departure of MINUSMA deployed since 2013 in this country in the grip of a deep multidimensional crisis.
The UN Security Council ended the mission’s mandate on June 30 and gave it until December 31 to leave the country.
Since then, MINUSMA, whose numbers have hovered around 15,000 soldiers and police officers more than 180 members of whom have been killed in hostile acts, has staggered the handovers, in sometimes difficult conditions in the north, under pressure from a military escalation between all the armed actors present on the ground.
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