APA-Dakar (Senegal) The withdrawal of the United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) will end on 31 December 2023.
The torch is burning between the Malian army and some of the Senegalese soldiers employed by the United Nations.
On 30 June, the Security Council terminated the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) at the request of Bamako, and some of the peacekeepers deployed in central Mali are revealing their dissatisfaction with their Malian comrades-in-arms, whom they accuse of restricting their freedom of movement and trying to intimidate them.
In a video that went viral on social media a few hours ago, a Senegalese officer, whose name and rank are still unknown, advised his fellow soldiers not to “give in”, as if to urge them to fight back at the next moment of intimidation.
He reminded them that the normal deadline for withdrawal is eighteen months.
“We have six months to complete the mission. But there’s a new situation: our Malian brothers are causing us serious problems. We’re not only ambassadors for Senegal, but also for the United Nations. We’re going to leave, but we won’t accept being manhandled or anything like that,” he said.
He insisted that ‘the Senegalese don’t lack character, and the Malians are no braver than us. They may refuse to send us on a mission, but we won’t accept to be puppets”, which prompted Minusma to respond the next minute.
It said it “deplores the statements” made by the officer, who is based in Sévaré, in the central region of Mopti.
It “distances itself from his statement, which in no way reflects the position of Minusma”.
Mali, for its part, is yet to respond to this accusation about its soldiers deployed in this position, not far from Ogossagou, a Fulani village plagued by intercommunal violence and infamous for the massacre of more than 130 civilians in March 2019.
In addition to communal violence, central Mali is known to be a haven for jihadist groups.
“In reality, nobody wants the Minusma to leave [this area]. They know that if we leave, things will get out of hand. The Malian army knows this. If it were up to me, we’d leave Ogassagou and go home”, the Senegalese officer said in the controversial video.
Following the second massacre of civilians in Ogossagou in February 2020, Minusma set up a temporary base for Senegalese peacekeepers.
Normally, this type of operation, known as a “temporary operational base”, lasts only six months.
However, at the request of the population, who do not want to return to this tragedy, the Minusma base has been located between the villages of Ogossagou Peuhl and Dogon for more than two years.
In October 2021, the peacekeepers even managed to broker a historic peace agreement between the two communities and bury the hatchet once and for all.
With the departure of the MINUSMA contingent, estimated at nearly 13,000 peacekeepers, some observers fear that Mali will be left to hold its own against jihadist groups that have carved up much of the country.
But the transitional government, led by radical colonels under Colonel Assimi Goïta, is proud of the growing strength of the national army.
ODL/md/ac/lb/as/APA