The UN Security Council has ended a decade-old peacekeeping mission to Mali, whose military junta urged the troops’ removal as it aligns with Russia.
The Security Council voted unanimously on a resolution that will immediately start winding down the Minusma mission, started in 2013 to prevent terrorists takeover.
The vote came two weeks after Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop stunned the Security Council by calling the UN mission a “failure” and urging its immediate end.
Mali’s relations with the United Nations have deteriorated sharply since a 2020 coup brought to power a military regime which also severed defense cooperation with France, the former colonial power.
The junta has aligned itself with Russia and brought in Russian military contractors.
Senior US ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis told the Security Council, “We sincerely regret the transitional government’s decision to quit Minusma and the suffering this will cause to the Malian people.
However, he stated that the US voted in favor of the resolution because it agreed with the withdrawal timeframe.
A peacekeeping deployment requires the host country’s agreement, according to long-standing UN tradition.
