Abbreviation MINUSMA Type Peacekeeping Mission | Formation 25 April 2013 Legal status Active | |
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Head Mahamat Saleh Annadi, Special Representative Website un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minusma/ Parent organization United Nations Security Council | ||
Mali taureg rebels attack regional governor s office in kidal
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations unies pour la stabilisation au Mali, MINUSMA) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. MINUSMA was established on 25 April 2013 by UN Security Council Resolution 2100 to stabilise the country after the Tuareg rebellion (2012). It was officially deployed on 1 July.
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History
In 2012, Tuareg and other peoples in northern Mali's Azawad region started an insurgency in the north under the banner of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. After some initial successes and complaints from the Malian Army that it was ill-equipped to fight the insurgents, who had benefited from an influx of heavy weaponry from the 2011 Libyan civil war as well as other sources, elements of the army staged a military coup d'état on 21 March 2012. Following the coup, the rebels made further advances to capture the three biggest cities in the north: Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal. Following economic sanctions and a blockade by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the country, a deal, brokered in Burkina Faso by President Blaise Compaoré under the auspices of ECOWAS, was signed that would see Amadou Sanogo cede power to Dioncounda Traoré to assume the presidency in an interim capacity until an election is held.
On 1 July 2013, 6,000 of a future total of 12,600 UN peacekeeping troops officially took over responsibility for patrolling the country's north from France and the ECOWAS' International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA). The group is expected to play a role in the 2013 Malian presidential election. The force is the third largest UN peacekeeping force in operation in the world.
Organisation and forces
Its headquarters are in the Malian capital, Bamako. Military intelligence will be evaluated by ASIFU (All Sources Information Fusion Unit).
The force is led by Belgian Major General Jean-Paul Deconinck.
Current contributors are:
Incidents
In October 2013, a suicide bomber attacked the Chadian soldiers resulting in two dead soldiers.
On 13 December, two Senegalese peacekeepers were killed at a bombing outside the Malian Solidarity Bank in Kidal a day before the second round of the Malian parliamentary election, 2013. In October 2014, 10 soldiers were killed—nine from Niger and one from Senegal near Gao and Kidal, respectively—bringing the total number of dead soldiers from the mission to 21 with dozens more wounded. It also preceded Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop calling for the UNSC to send a rapid deployment force to the country claiming that there was an increase in drug traffickers and Islamist fighters. U.N. Peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous also spoke to the UNSC from Bamako, where he attend a memorial service for the dead soldiers. He added that a combination of factors has led to the increase in attacks on U.N. troops, including the drawdown of French forces and a perceived lack of Malian security forces, as such MINUSMA, being the main international presence in the area, was a target. He further noted that the UN was no longer working in a peacekeeping environment, but sought to increase protection of the mission’s staff, equipment and bases.
A total of at least 44 troops have been killed due to hit and run attacks and bombings by Islamist groups during the ongoing conflict.