IVORY COAST TO WITHDRAW FROM U.N. PEACEKEEPING MISSION IN MALI- LETTER

ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast will gradually withdraw its contribution of military and police from a United Nations peacekeeping force in Mali, according to a letter by its ambassador to the U.N., after Bamako detained 46 of its soldiers in July.

Mali accused the soldiers of being mercenaries. Ivory Coast says they were part of a security and logistics contingent working under the peacekeeping mission and has made repeated pleas for their release.

Ivory Coast has informed the U.N. it has stopped rotating troops and would not replace personnel in the peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in August 2023, according to a letter to a senior U.N. peacekeeping official dated November 11.

The decision was confirmed by two senior Ivory Coast security sources. MINUSMA and the governments of Mali and Ivory Coast did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mali has for a decade relied on regional allies and peacekeepers to contain an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands of people and taken over large areas of the centre and north.

Britain also announced on Monday it is withdrawing its peacekeepers from Mali, saying the country’s growing reliance on Russian mercenaries is undermining stability.

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said the 300-strong British force that has been stationed in Mali since 2020 as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission will leave earlier than planned. He did not give a timeline.

Heappey told lawmakers in the House of Commons that “responsibility for all of this sits in Bamako,” Mali’s capital. “Two coups in three years have undermined international efforts to advance peace.” Tensions have grown between Mali, its African neighbours and the West after Mali’s government allowed Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to deploy on its territory.

Heappey called Wagner’s forces “a bunch of murderous, human rights-abusing thugs. The Wagner Group is linked to mass human rights abuses and the Malian government’s partnership with the Wagner Group is counterproductive to lasting stability and security in their region,” he said.