According to the UN mission MINUSMA, the security situation in Mali is deteriorating: rebel Tuareg rebels are gaining ground after evacuating a base. The withdrawal must be completed by the end of the year.
Mali’s Tuareg rebels claimed to have occupied an vacated base in Kidal on Tuesday. UN The peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA) has previously left a contested key base in the north of the West African country as part of its planned withdrawal.
Kidal is a strategically important city. UN in central and northern Mali It was the eighth out of a total of 13 bases that the players had ejected. It was one of their most important places.
Security situation Deteriorating
According to Minuzma, it was difficult to quit Gidal. En route to a field camp in Khao – where Bundeswehr soldiers are still based – the last convoy was hit by landmines. The Kidal region is considered a stronghold of the separatist Tuareg rebels.
Convoys of Chadian peacekeepers from Aguelhok and Tessalit northern bases are now in Gao. Withdrawal was “very difficult” as the “security situation worsened”.
Military government Claims exemption
The UN mission to stabilize the country in the Sahel region is being withdrawn at the request of Mali’s military government. After Mali’s military seized power in a coup in 2021, relations with UN troops and the West deteriorated. The government has been criticized internationally for not holding elections and maintaining close ties with Russia. In June, the army finally called for the withdrawal of international soldiers, which was to be completed by December 31.
Germany had already decided to stop participating in the mission. According to the latest information from the Bundeswehr, “only half of the original 1,000 soldiers remain in the field camp at Kao”.
The situation in Mali is deteriorating
Islamist terrorist groups, some of them allied with al-Qaeda and the terrorist group “Islamic State”, are spreading in Mali and its neighboring countries. Observers now expect fighting between the military and rebel Tuareg rebels in northern Mali.
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