Month: June 2022

Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed and two others were injured on Friday after an improvised bomb exploded in central Mali, a spokesman for the MINUSMA mission tweeted.

The soldiers were part of the Egyptian contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, a security official said.

“The head of MINUSMA condemned the attack,” spokesman Olivier Salgado posted.

He said the incident took place near the town of Douentza, on the road to Timbuktu.

On Wednesday, a Jordanian peacekeeper was killed in an attack on his convoy in Kidal, in northern Mali.

With 13,000 members, MINUSMA — the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali — is one of the U.N.’s biggest peacekeeping operations and also one of its most dangerous.

Improvised explosive devices are a weapon of choice for jihadis against MINUSMA and Malian forces. They also kill many civilians.
Seven Togolese peacekeepers were killed in December by an IED explosion between Douentza and Sevare.

On Friday, the Egyptian peacekeepers were in an escort of a dozen U.N. vehicles accompanying a convoy of civilian trucks carrying fuel, Salgado said.

Such convoys can stretch for miles. A mine exploded as the convoy passed, Salgado said. Mines can be detonated on contact or remotely.

Central Mali is a hotbed of violence and jihadi activity that has spread from the north to the center of the country, and then to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of civilians and combatants have died, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

Two reports published this week, one from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and another from the human rights division of MINUSMA, express alarm at the intensification of the violence in central Mali.

Source: Voice of America

KHARTOUM— Hundreds of Sudanese protesters including supporters of Islamist groups rallied in front of the United Nations mission in Khartoum to call for its dismissal.

The protests were endorsed by Islamist groups that have criticised efforts by UN envoy Volker Perthes to resolve the political crisis in Sudan since last year’s military coup.

The rallies came as the UN Security Council mulled over extending the mission’s mandate beyond June 3.

“Volker, you German, the crisis will be solved by the Sudanese,” protesters chanted outside the headquarters of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan, or UNITAMS, in Khartoum.

Others called on Perthes to “leave”.

On Tuesday, Islamist leader Mohamed Ali Al-Gizouli accused Perthes of “interfering” in Sudan’s internal affairs during a seminar titled “the negative impact of the UN mission on the launch of Sudanese dialogue”.

Last month, Perthes said the political stalemate was “impacting the security situation” and “continues to exact a heavy socio-economic toll” in Sudan.

Sudan has been rocked by deepening unrest since an Oct 25 coup staged by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which sparked regular anti-coup protests across much of the country.

The power grab derailed a fragile power-sharing agreement between the army and civilians negotiated after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

A violent crackdown on the anti-coup protests has left nearly 100 people killed, according to pro-democracy medics.

In April, Burhan threatened to expel Perthes over alleged “interference” in the country’s affairs.

Perthes had earlier told the UN Security Council that Sudan was heading towards “an economic and security collapse” unless its civilian-led transition was restored.

The UN mission, along with the African Union and regional bloc IGAD, have been pushing to facilitate Sudanese-led talks to resolve the crisis.

Western governments have backed the UN-AU-IGAD bid and urged Sudanese factions to participate in the process.

On Sunday, Burhan lifted the state of emergency imposed since the coup to set the stage for “meaningful dialogue that achieves stability for the transitional period”.

The decision came after a meeting with senior military officials that also recommended that people detained under an emergency law be freed.

The UN mission welcomed Burhan’s decision, urging Sudanese authorities to “complete the release of detainees”.

Sudanese authorities have since April released a number of anti-coup civilian leaders and pro-democracy activists arrested in the crackdown.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

TRIPOLI— The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it evacuated 132 vulnerable asylum-seekers from Libya to Rwanda.

“UNHCR evacuated a group of 132 vulnerable asylum seekers, including young children and babies, out of Libya to safety in Rwanda,” UNHCR Libya tweeted.

The asylum-seekers, who are from different African countries, had been living in urban areas of the capital Tripoli and include survivors of violence and torture and women and girls at risk, said UNHCR in a statement.

Expressing gratitude to Libyan authorities for facilitating the evacuation, UNHCR Acting Chief of Mission in Libya Djamal Zamoum said “these vital flights provide hope and safety for some of the most vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya.”

Zamoum urged other countries to “provide more pathways or resettlement opportunities to help others find safety out of Libya.”

Since 2017, a total of 8,296 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers have been evacuated out of Libya to safety, according to the UN relief agency.

Many illegal migrants, mostly Africans, choose to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores from Libya.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Suspected terrorists attacked a U.N. peacekeeping convoy in northern Mali on Wednesday, the United Nations said. A Jordanian peacekeeper was killed and three other Jordanians were wounded.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the supply convoy was under sustained fire for about an hour from attackers who used small arms and rocket launchers.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and sent his deepest condolences to the families of the peacekeepers and the government and people of Jordan, Dujarric said.

According to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, the attack was the fifth incident in the northern Kidal region in one week, Dujarric said.

“It is a tragic reminder of the complexity of the mandate of the U.N. mission and of its peacekeepers, and the threats peacekeepers face on a daily basis,” he said.

The Security Council later released a statement condemning the attack and calling on authorities in Mali to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. The statement added that the Security Council “underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.”

Mali has struggled to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. Extremist rebels were forced from power in Mali’s northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation, but they regrouped in the desert and began attacking the Malian army and its allies. Insecurity has worsened with attacks in the northern and central regions on civilians and U.N. peacekeepers.

Mali’s military returned to Kidal, a longtime rebel stronghold in the north, in February 2020, six years after its forces retreated amid violence. U.N. peacekeepers have also been deployed in the north.

Deadliest mission

The U.N. force has said more than 250 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.’s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide.

The U.N. special representative for Mali, El Ghassim Wane, issued a statement Wednesday saying the U.N. mission remained determined to support Mali’s people and government in their quest for peace and security, Dujarric said.

In August 2020, Malian President Boubacar Ibrahim Keita, who died in January, was overthrown in a coup that included Assimi Goita, then an army colonel. Last June, Goita was sworn in as president of a transitional government after carrying out his second coup in nine months.

In mid-May, Goita’s government said security forces had thwarted a countercoup attempt that it said was supported by an unnamed Western government.

The accusations of foreign interference came as Goita’s regime has become increasingly isolated. A day earlier, the government announced that Mali was dropping out of a five-nation regional security force known as the G5. It was also sharply critical of former colonial power France, which announced in February that it was pulling its troops out of Mali.

While Mali’s junta initially agreed to an 18-month transition back to civilian rule, it failed to organize elections by the deadline in February. Last month, the government said it would need two more years in power before it could organize a vote.

Source: Voice of America