UN asks Canada to extend Mali mission

OTTAWA— The United Nations has formally asked Canada to extend its mission in Mali in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to prevent a gap in the provision of military medical evacuations for wounded peacekeepers and UN staff.

The UN request is contained in a letter sent to the federal government at the end of February after months of quiet lobbying was met with steadfast resistance in Ottawa. The move is somewhat unusual because such formal requests are often only made when the UN believes it has a good chance of success, which is anything but certain in this particular circumstance.

Yet the presence of a formal request also increases the pressure on Canada to respond positively after the government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, repeatedly played down the gap.

The timing is also noteworthy given that the UN hosts a major peacekeeping summit in New York this week, the first such meeting since Canada hosted a similar event in Vancouver in November 2017.

Canada has eight helicopters and 250 military personnel in Mali, where they have been providing emergency medical evacuations and transporting troops and equipment across a large swath of the remote African country.

The contingent is scheduled to end operations at the end of July, at which point it will pack up and leave before a Romanian force arrives to take over. However, the Romanians aren’t scheduled to begin operations until Oct. 15, meaning there will be a roughly two-anda-half-month gap that needs to be filled.

In its Feb. 28 letter to the government, portions of which were read to the Canadian Press, the UN “kindly asks the government of Canada to consider a short extension of its contribution.” Specifically, it asks that Canada continue full operations until Sept. 15, and then more limited operations until Oct. 15 as the Canadians draw down and withdraw to make way for the Romanians.