Flavia Krause-Jackson
Bloomberg
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon recommended that as many as 11,200 United Nations peacekeepers and a special counterterrorist unit be deployed to Mali to take over the fight against Islamic insurgents in the land-locked African nation, relieving France.
Ban laid out the options for Mali in a 26-page report obtained by Bloomberg News, as France seeks to pull back 4,000 troops following its January intervention to rid the north of Islamist militants. About 7,000 African troops helping France should become a UN peacekeeping force, according to the report.
As a former colonial power with the most at stake in Mali, the French still are set to play an important if diminished role alongside a UN force of seven mobile infantry battalions, one reserve battalion and about 1,440 police operating in the north.
“Given the anticipated level and nature of the residual threat, there would be a fundamental requirement for a parallel force to operate in Mali (and potentially in the sub-region) alongside the United Nations mission in order to conduct major combat and counter-terrorism operations and provide specialist support beyond the scope of the United Nations’ mandate and capability,” Ban says in the report.
France has been mapping out an exit strategy for Mali for months as the UN solidifies plans to turn African forces into so-called Blue Helmets, as UN peacekeepers are often known.
