BAMAKO: Malians appear divided over the military junta’s loud call for UN peacekeepers to immediately leave the west African country in the throes of an insurgency.
The foreign minister called on Friday for the UN Security Council to withdraw the nearly 15,000 peacekeepers from his country “without delay”, denouncing their “failure” to meet security challenges .
The mandate of United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission (MINUSMA) expires on June 30 and plenty of people in the capital Bamako back getting rid of the foreign forces.
“MINUSMA’s presence has served no purpose,” Bamakoresident Ladji Diallo said.
“They’ve been here for 10 years with no result. Their arrival even made the situation worse,” he added.
Mali’s military has increasingly imposed operational restrictions on the peacekeepers and also broken a longstanding alliance with former colonial power France.
The landlocked Sahel state has been battling a security crisis since insurgencies broke out in the north in 2012.
Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2023
