The report released on April 7, 2022 by the director of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) El-Ghassim Wane leaves few doubts about the emergency nature of the situation in the country. The mission head urged the Security Council to employ greater human and financial efforts to allow the mission to “close the gap between what it is mandated to do, and what it can actually do". These statements come following the occurrence of a series of recent events that have greatly worried the direction of the mission.
The most relevant event is the Moura massacre, in the center of the country. In this village, allegedly between March 23 and April 3, the Malian armed forces conducted a military operation with the aim of engaging a terrorist group and, according to the Malian Ministry of Defense, 203 "terrorists" were reportedly killed. This fact attracted the attention of Human Rights Watch, which recently denounced the systematic killing of at least 300 civilians in the context of the operation. These developments overlap with the already difficult situation arose in Mali after the start of the withdrawal of French troops of the Barkhane mission and with the recent statements by EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell, who announced a temporary suspension of the two EU capacity-building missions to train the country’s law enforcement agencies and the army.
Wane concluded by noting that there has been no particular progress in the pacification process of the country, mainly due to the lack of initiative of the military junta of Mali to respect the peace accords of 2015. A new agreement on the democratic transition of the country would allow for a relaxation of sanctions imposed by ECOWAS, which would facilitate the fulfillment of the desire for "peace and better governance" that the people of Mali have been asking for years.
To read more, please visit:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115822
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/05/mali-massacre-army-foreign-soldiers
Author: Ignazio Alcamo
