End of an Era in Mali as UN Force Finally Quits

‘The Malian government’s request for withdrawal of [U.N. peacekeepers] demonstrates its trust in [the Wagner group] and its own defense forces.’

An emblem of the United Nations on the arm of a German armed forces Bundeswehr soldier who had served under the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali after the troops landed at the military air base in Wunstorf, northern Germany, on Dec. 15, 2023. Ronny Hartmann/ AFP

YAOUNDE, Cameroon—Mali’s army says it has successfully retaken the key Aguelhok territory in the country’s tense northern Kidal region without “major clashes” as the country struggles to fill the security vacuum left by peacekeepers of the U.N. mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

The West African military-led government accused U.N. troops in late October of leaving their base in the area without waiting to hand it over to Malian soldiers, thereby leaving space for terrorists to take over. An Islamist insurgency erupted in 2013 in northern Mali and quickly spread to other parts of the Sahel—a vast and dry stretch of land between the Sahara Desert and the savannah farther south. MINUSMA was deployed in the same year to prop up Mali’s security amid attacks from jihadis linked to the al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist groups, as well as a Tuareg-led separatist revolt.