At the end of January, criticism of the Malian military government was voiced at a UN meeting. They sensed a “conspiracy” and expelled the head of the human rights department of the UN mission Minusma from the country. The dispute is also said to be about working with Russian Wagner mercenaries.
Mali’s military government has declared the director of the human rights department of the UN mission Minusma an undesirable person in the country. The UN official Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali had to leave the country within 48 hours, according to a government statement published on Sunday evening. The junta accused Andali of “destabilizing and subversive acts”.
He chose “impostors” as Mali’s civil society representatives for meetings of the UN Security Council and “ignored the national authorities and institutions”, most recently at the meeting on January 27. At the meeting before the United Nations’ highest body, a representative of civil society complained not only about violence by terrorists but also about human rights violations by the Malian military and its “Russian partners”. The Malian government accused Andali of a “conspiracy” to denigrate the country.
“We regret the Malian government’s decision, but Minusma will continue to exercise its mandate, including with regard to human rights,” said a senior UN official in New York on Sunday (local time).
Mali, with around 20 million inhabitants, is politically extremely unstable. Since the most recent coup in May 2021, it has been run by a military government that has been criticized by western countries for its close ties with Russia, among other things. The Russian mercenary group Wagner is suspected of having committed crimes such as executions and torture in the country. On January 31, UN legal experts in Geneva called for an independent investigation into possible attacks and war crimes in Mali by government troops and Wagner mercenaries fighting alongside them.
Minusma has been present in the Sahel state, which is affected by extremism and poverty, since 2013 and is intended to protect the Malian civilian population from Islamist militias. As part of the UN mission, more than 1,100 men and women from the Bundeswehr are currently deployed in Mali. However, there were repeated disputes with the government of General Assimi Goita.
