The United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) announced Sunday, August 13, 2023 to have “anticipated” its withdrawal from a camp in the north, subject to tensions between the former Tuareg rebellion and the junta, “due to the deterioration of security” in the area where the army recently lost soldiers after a “terrorist” attack.
“MINUSMA anticipated its withdrawal from Ber due to the deterioration of security in the area and the high risks it poses to our peacekeepers,” she said in a message on X (formerly Twitter), without details of initial departure date and staffing.
It “invites the various actors concerned to refrain from any act that could further complicate the operation,” she adds.
Ber’s departure from the Burkinabe peacekeepers who occupied him was scheduled as part of the withdrawal of Minusma by the end of the year from that country, with a first departure on 3 August in Ogossagou (centre).
MINUSMA is thus implementing the decision taken at the end of June by the UN Security Council to put an immediate end to the mission deployed since 2013, at the request of the junta that came to power by force in 2020.
The withdrawal of some 11,600 soldiers and 1,500 policemen of dozens of nationalities, who were present in Mali must take place until 31 December.
“The Minusma has left Ber. The camp is completely occupied by the FAMa (Malian army), without incident,” a senior local security official told AFP on Sunday. The junta did not publicly react.
The Ber area has also been the scene of tensions between the Russian army and paramilitary group Wagner and the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA, former Tuareg rebellion), according to the latter organization.
Minusma must “simply leave (from Ber) and not concede” the camp to another entity, said X, Attaye Ag Mohamed, a head of the CMA.
“The FAMa are holding on at all costs to occupy the Minusma rights-of-way, including those located in areas under the control of the CMA,” the former rebellion, which controls vast areas in the north, said in a statement sent to AFP on Saturday.
The gap has widened with the junta that the CMA accuses of questioning the 2015 Algiers peace agreement that it signed with Bamako.
