Several sources in the UN peacekeeping force told AFP that UN troops fled a camp in the crucial town of Kidal in Mali’s turbulent north, which has been devastated by Islamist and separatist conflict.
“We left Kidal this morning,” a source with the UN peacekeeping operation located there said, adding that the convoy of over 100 trucks was on its way to Gao, another important town in the north approximately 330 kilometers (200 miles) away.
Following the UN’s departure, tensions in Kidal are set to increase even more.
The region is a heartland of the Tuareg revolt and a key source of contention over sovereignty.
While the final departure from Kidal was initially planned for the second half of November, a MINUSMA official recently said it could be just a matter of days before the peacekeepers left.
Non-essential personnel have been the first to withdraw.
Following a coup in 2020, Mali’s new military rulers in June ordered the peacekeepers out, proclaiming the “failure” of their mission.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), whose strength has hovered around 15,000 soldiers and police officers, has seen 180 of its members killed.
The original plan was for the peacekeeping force to have withdrawn from the West African nation by the end of the year, but the UN troops began withdrawing from their compounds as early as July.
The UN peacekeeping force says it has had to destroy or decommission equipment such as vehicles, ammunition and generators that it was unable to take away, in accordance with UN rules.
The MINUSMA withdrawal has exacerbated rivalries between armed groups present in the north of the country and the Malian state.
These groups do not want the UN camps handed back to the Malian army, saying such a move would contravene ceasefire and peace deals struck with Bamako in 2014 and 2015.
However the army is pushing to take back control of the evacuated camps.The predominantly Tuareg separatist groups who oppose the army have resumed hostilities against it.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has also stepped up attacks against the military.
That means that MINUSMA’s pull-out is all the more perilous, taking place against the background of this renewal of hostilities — and on what are perceived to be restrictions imposed by the authorities on its ability to manoeuvre.
A confidential note to the UN Security Council from its Department of Peace Operations, seen by AFP, set
MINUSMA’s difficulties are highlighted. They included the denial of flying or travel permits, a ban on necessary imports, and the inability to conduct security patrols around its own camps.
In this light, MINUSMA devised a backup plan for its pullout.
Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, a spokesperson for the Malian government, has accused erstwhile ally and ex-colonial ruler France of making “no effort to make MINUSMA flee.”
The UN peacekeeping mission is disrupting the Malian army’s plans by hastening its exit, which does not want separatists to fill the void.
