Mali expels spokesman for UN peacekeeping mission

Mali is expelling the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force from the country over posts he made on Twitter, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

MINUSMA spokesman Olivier Salgado has 72 hours to leave “biased and unacceptable” posts he made regarding a controversy with Ivorian troops, according to a statement obtained by AFP.

The expulsion comes amid rising tensions between Mali’s ruling military and international partners supporting the country’s fight against jihadists.

The affair involving Salgado, a French national, concerns 49 Ivory Coast soldiers who were arrested after landing at Bamako airport on July 10.

The authorities accuse the troops of being “mercenaries”.

But Ivory Coast says they were sent to play a supporting role for MINUSMA as part of a routine rotation.

Countries providing MINUSMA contingents typically bring “national support elements” or NSEs to help with deliveries and other backup functions.

According to the Malian account, the troops had neither an operational order nor authorization to enter the country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Salgado of having stated in Twitter posts “without evidence that the Malian authorities had been informed of her arrival beforehand”.

MINUSMA, it said, had been asked to provide evidence of Salgado’s claims but had not responded.

Deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq said the UN “deeply regrets” the Malian decision.

“The doctrine of ‘persona non grata’ does not apply to United Nations personnel and is contrary to the obligations of the United Nations Charter,” he said.

“MINUSMA and the UN Headquarters are taking appropriate measures to proceed with the relevant authorities on this matter.”

The incident comes against the background of the problems in Mali, one of the poorest and most unstable countries in Africa.

A jihadist campaign that began in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso three years later has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Colonels, angered by the government’s handling of the insurgency, seized power in August 2020 and staged another coup in May 2021.

Their takeover sparked a long standoff with regional bloc ECOWAS over a timeline for restoring civilian rule.

The coup also sparked a row with France, Mali’s former colonial ruler, who says the junta hired Russian “mercenaries” to help them.

France’s anti-jihad mission in the Sahel is now withdrawing from Mali. The operation is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

MINUSMA – the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali – was launched in 2013.

It is one of the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping operations, with 17,609 troops, police, civilians and volunteers deployed in April, according to its website.

It is also one of the most dangerous UN missions, with 275 fatalities from attacks, accidents or other causes, according to the website.

The UN Security Council extended MINUSMA’s mandate by a year on June 29, although the junta rejected calls for free movement of human rights investigators with the mission.

Four days after the dispute over the Ivorian troops erupted, Mali announced that it would suspend the rotation of MINUSMA personnel for “national security reasons”.

The suspension will last until a meeting is held to facilitate “the coordination and regulation” of quota rotation, it said. A date for talks has not yet been set.

The following day, MINUSMA said Egypt, its largest troop contributor, had decided to “temporarily suspend” participation in operations after seven of its staff were killed that year.

On Wednesday, a group known as Yerewolo, which is said to be close to the junta, delivered a letter at MINUSMA headquarters in Bamako demanding that the mission leave the country.

It described MINUSMA as “an occupying force that stirs up and perpetuates fear”.

An analyst in Bamako said on condition of anonymity that tensions between MINUSMA and the Malian authorities “followed the same path” as that with France.

The pattern, he said, is “blocking foreign contingents, challenging the legal framework (for the mission), and then expelling a high-profile icon.”

The French ambassador was expelled in January, around the same time Denmark was ordered to withdraw a newly arrived unit that was part of a fledgling European force.