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The Security Council vote on Mali’s request to end the UN mission in the country (Minusma) has been postponed from Thursday to Friday, due to ongoing discussions
The Security Council vote on Mali’s request to end the UN mission in the country (Minusma) has been postponed from Thursday to Friday, due to ongoing discussions. Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop recently (16 June) had demanded the immediate withdrawal of Minusma, denouncing its “failure”.
While the consent of the host state is one of the principles of peacekeeping, the draft resolution proposed by France, which is at the forefront of the Malian dossier at the Security Council, proposes to end the mission, while allowing a period of six months for the withdrawal of the more than 12,000 soldiers and police deployed.
But due to ongoing discussions between Council members, the UN, and Mali, the vote scheduled for Thursday has been postponed until Friday, the last day of Minusma’s current mandate. Mali had asked for the six-month period for withdrawal to be shortened, which may raise the question of the practical conditions of the withdrawal. The United States, which regretted Mali’s decision, called for an orderly and responsible withdrawal.
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Immediately after the Malian minister’s statements, the head of Minusma, El Ghassim Wane, declared that the continuation of the mission, created in 2013 to help stabilize this state threatened with collapse under jihadist pressure and to protect civilians, had become “almost impossible”. Relations between Bamako and Minusma had largely deteriorated since the military came to power in 2020.
