UN may put forces in Mali

The UN Security Council will consider plans to deploy a new UN peacekeeping force to Mali to help pacify the northern part of the West African country following France’s ejection of hard-line Islamists from the cities there, a senior diplomat said Thursday.

The Security Council last month passed a resolution approving a multinational African force to help stabilize Mali. But with the Islamist forces in retreat, that plan has been overtaken by events on the ground.

Instead, the Security Council will discuss a regular UN peacekeeping force for Mali instead, the senior Western diplomat said.

The force would likely have 3,000 to 5,000 peacekeepers, the diplomat said.

A UN peacekeeping force would be a positive development, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.

“The evolution announced by the UN would be a very positive evolution, and I want this initiative to be carried out,” he said. “France will play its role, of course.”

French troops may still be needed to stay on for a while as a rapid-reaction strike force, with more aggressive duties in comparison to the pacification program assigned to the UN peacekeepers, the diplomat said.

The U.S., Britain and France favour the UN peacekeeping force approach. The change would require a new Security Council resolution.