Mali faces spectre of anarchy after demanding UN peacekeepers leave country

Mali’s unexpected demand for the departure of UN peacekeepers may herald a sudden end to a decade-long mission that has struggled to protect civilians and its own troops, raising fears the country could slide deeper into chaos amid an Islamist insurgency and the possible revival of a separatist uprising.

The UN mission, known as MINUSMA, has been hobbled by restrictions on its air and ground operations since Mali’s ruling junta joined forces with Russian military contractor Wagner Group in 2021, limiting its effectiveness against an Islamist insurgency that took root a decade ago and has since spread across West Africa.

Despite the restrictions, MINUSMA’s 13,000-strong force has held the line in northern cities including Gao and Timbuktu that are surrounded by militants. It patrols camps for displaced people, which come under frequent attack, and provides medical evacuations for Mali’s under-equipped army.

And it has also helped to placate Tuareg-led rebels in northern Mali, who halted their separatist uprising with the 2015 Algiers Accord.

It is unclear how quickly UN troops could leave following Mali’s request on Friday. But, if and when they do, Bamako will be alone with about 1,000 Wagner soldiers to battle the militants linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda, who have killed thousands of civilians and soldiers and control large swathes of the country’s desert north and centre.

“If you leave, you have anarchy and civil war, especially against civilians and the weak,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, a former Mauritanian foreign minister who served as a top UN official in West Africa and now runs a regional think-tank, said. “If you stay, you are almost discredited.”