Mali rejects delay in UN troops’ departure, Malian and Russian forces relocate to northern region

While the United Nations voiced concern on Saturday (14 October) over an escalation of fighting in northern Mali, the Malian foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop said that the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from the region would happen on time by 31 December.
The UN expressed its concern at the weekend that its drawdown could be hampered by an escalation of fighting in the north — where rival armed groups are seeking to seize territory as its peacekeepers pull out — and by an influx of Malian troops there. “Heightened tensions and the increasingly hostile presence of armed groups in northern Mali are likely to impede the departure of the UN Stabilisation Mission there,” the UN wrote in a note to the media. Since late August, rival armed groups have been seeking to seize territory, while the UN mission there is about to pull out. The departure of the MINUSMA peacekeepers by the end of 2023 is part of an ongoing security reconfiguration launched by the military junta, which seized power in 2020.
But Abdoulaye Diop said on the same day that “everything must be done to ensure the work of MINUSMA is finished by 31 December.” The minister also added that “the government does not foresee any extension of this deadline.” There has been an escalation in fighting in the north between majority-Tuareg separatist groups and the Malian army. The jihadist Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), which is affiliated to Al-Qaeda, has also stepped up attacks on Malian army posts. Meanwhile, as the UN mission in the West African country begins to wind down, Malian soldiers and Russian paramilitary forces are seeking to take their place in Tessalit, a rural town in the country’s northeast. Mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group have actively operated in Mali since late 2021.