UN peacekeepers are sent to the Mali-Burkina-Niger border to “contain” massacres in Tri-border area, reports said on Friday.
UN peacekeepers from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (UNMISMA) are now present in the northeast of the country, on the border with Burkina Faso and Niger, “to stem a wave of killings,” the UN announced Thursday.
In this region, jihadist groups linked to the Islamic State (EI) have killed hundreds of civilians in recent weeks, according to local authorities.
The 12,000-strong UN Mission in Mali and 1,500 police officers must now face the direct threat of jihadist groups in a context where Paris and its European partners announced in February the end of operations Barkhane and Takuba in Mali.
The UN Mission, which is present in the regions of Kidal, Timbuktu, Gao and Tessalit to secure and stabilize these regions and provide assistance to the population, does not have a mandate to wage war in Mali. In its mandate, it is supported by Barkhane and Takuba, which provide military interventions against jihadist groups.
With the departure of France and its European allies, MINUSMA will have to readjust its strategy in Mali in order to integrate a military combat force at the time. It will also have to come to terms with the Russian private military company Wagner, which is reportedly already operating in Mali.
CD/fss/abj/APA