APA-Ndjamena (Chad) The contingent left Kidal on October 31, 2023, as part of the disengagement of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
After ten years with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), Chadian peacekeepers returned home on Thursday November 30.
Having left Kidal, in northern Mali, on October 31, the Chadian contingent faced enormous difficulties in reaching Gao. Eight days on the road for a distance of 351km. Four improvised explosive device (IED) attacks left some fifteen people injured. The Malian government had refused to issue authorizations for the contingent to be flown directly back to Ndjamena.
The announcement of this “triumphant” return was made by the Chadian head of state, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who was also deployed to Mali in 2012 as second-in-command of the Chadian armed forces for intervention in Mali (FATIM). “The Chadian contingent of MINUSMA has just arrived in Liwa on Chadian soil, after more than a decade and at the end of one of the most noble missions: that of helping the sister Republic of Mali regain peace, stability and the integrity of its territory,” he wrote on his social networks. This return marks, according to him, “the end of a stage in Chad’s relentless commitment against terrorism in the Sahel.”
To welcome these soldiers, the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, Army General Abakar Abdelkerim Daoud, travelled to Liwa, a locality in the Lac province bordering Niger, where the contingent arrived on Thursday.
Heavy losses
Of all the contingents that have made up the MINUSMA, the Chadian detachment is the one that has suffered the heaviest losses, the organization said in a press release dated October 17. Eighty-two Chadian peacekeepers lost their lives during this mission, during which they were deployed in Tessalit, Aguelhok and Kidal.
In October 2022, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, had paid tribute to this sacrifice, recalling the boundless commitment of the Chadian military, despite being under constant terrorist pressure. “Of all the countries contributing to MINUSMA, Chad has suffered the highest casualties. But never has the determination of its soldiers been shaken, never has the commitment of its authorities to regional stability been undermined,” he declared.
In the same press release, the UN Mission recalled that the sacrifice of Chadian peacekeepers has been embodied by heroic figures in the Chadian armed forces, such as Captain Abdelrazakh Hamit Bahar, Deputy Commander of the Special Forces, who was killed during a terrorist attack in Aguelhok in April 2021 while defending the base to protect the lives of his colleagues and prevent civilian casualties. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres posthumously awarded him the Captain Mbaye Diagne medal for “exceptional courage.”
The Chadian contingent has not only acted militarily. Socially, it provided food assistance to the population of Aguelhok during the floods of 2018 and 2020. Just as it sponsored the establishment of a market garden perimeter for the women of Amachach to the tune of 25 million FCFA, recounted MINUSMA while acknowledging that “these acts testify to their commitment to community development” a-t-il poursuivi.
« We say to these women and men ‘shukran’ (thank you in Arabic, one of the most widely spoken languages in Chad),” MINUSMA addressed the soldiers forming the Chadian contingent.
CA/ac/fss/abj/APA