After Mali detained 46 of its soldiers in July, Ivory Coast said in a letter to the United Nations that it would progressively withdraw its military and police support from a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Mali.
Mali claimed that the soldiers were mercenaries. They allegedly worked as a security and logistics component for the peacekeeping mission, and Ivory Coast has repeatedly pleaded
According to a letter from the Ivory Coast to a senior U.N. peacekeeping official dated November 11, the Ivory Coast told the U.N. that it has stopped rotating soldiers and will not be replacing personnel in the peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, in August 2023.
Two senior Ivory Coast security sources verified the choice. Requests for comment from MINUSMA and the governments of Mali and the Ivory Coast were not immediately fulfilled.
An insurgency that has killed thousands of people and taken over sizable portions of the country’s center and north has been contained by Mali for ten years with the help of regional allies and peacekeepers.
This is coming after Britain announced that it would withdraw its 300 troops from a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Mali.
The early pullout of the troops follows the departure of tens of thousands of troops from Mali by France and its military allies earlier this year, as the country’s military junta started working with Russian company Wagner Group-affiliated private contractors.
Diplomats worry that the Western withdrawals from Mali this year will fuel conflict, destabilise the country’s neighbours, and strengthen insurgents.