SNA (New York) — France and the United Kingdom have ceased support for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, the deadliest currently in operation. These withdrawals followed a decade of fruitless attempts to end hostilities between the West African nation’s government and its rebel Islamists.

France, which provided three thousand troops over the last decade, set off a chain reaction of withdrawals when it announced its pull out from Mali in February. French President Emmanuel Macron, citing a breakdown in relations with Mali’s new military government, declared that a “victory against terror is not possible if it’s not supported by the state itself.”

The United Kingdom, which had provided around three hundred peacekeepers, followed suit last month. Minister for Armed Forces and Veterans James Heappey explained in a statement before the House of Commons that “Mali’s government is not willing to work with us to deliver lasting stability and security.”

Both countries’ statements referenced a lack of faith in Mali’s political stability and in its military government, the latest of which came to power in a May 2021 coup. Mali has seen three military seizures of power over the past decade, all of which were related to the nation’s internal conflict.

Mali’s long war originally centered around demands for independence by the Tuareg people in the northern regions of the country, who possess a more Saharan or North African identity. They have been fighting to create a new nation which they call Azawad,

In October 2011, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) was created by Tuareg fighters, some of whom are believed to have formerly belonged to the army of Libya during the Muammar Gaddafi era. By the following year, they had defeated government forces in northern Mali with assistance from a myriad of Islamist groups, some of them from arriving from abroad.

When a military coup occurred in in Bamako, Mali’s capital in the southern part of the country, the rebel forces anticipated further success.

But their string of victories did not long endure. By July 2012, Islamist forces, including Al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb and Islamic State, broke with the NMLA and took for themselves the three largest cities in northern Mali.

Concerned about the implications of these events for the Global War on Terrorism, France sent in its military in January 2013, with support from the African Union. This was ostensibly done at the request of–and on behalf of–the Malian military government in Bamako.

A few months later, after French troops had pushed the Islamist fighters out of the major cities of the north, the reins were handed to the United Nations in the form of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), which is to date the largest such peacekeeping operation of its kind.

Unfortunately for the UN peacekeepers, France’s military victory was not complete. Though scattered into the northern deserts, the Islamists were able to regroup and have carried on a guerrilla campaign to this day.

As of now, 209 MINUSMA peacekeepers have been killed fighting, making it the deadliest UN mission currently underway.

The decade-long conflict has additionally claimed the lives of thousands of Malians on all sides and has displaced around 380,000 civilians, according to the estimates of Human Rights Watch.

This high toll of death and destruction, combined with growing disapproval of the military government in Bamako, has gradually eroded the willingness of Western powers to remain militarily engaged.

In particular, the newest military government antagonized its Western allies last December by inviting the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary force close to Kremlin interests, to enter the country as instructors and military advisors. Many observers believe, however, that these Russians are in fact directly engaged in battles against the northern rebels.

The Biden administration has been outspoken in its disapproval. US State Department Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland warned in October of a 30% rise in “reports of human rights abuses across the region where [Wagner mercenaries] are working.”

Additionally, Paris alleged back in April, based on drone footage, that Wagner mercenaries have also engaged in espionage activities, including an attempt to implicate France in war crimes by burying human bodies in shallow graves near a base recently evacuated by French troops.

The military government of Mali has expressed displeasure with the stream of Western criticism directed its way, which was heightened against the background of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For example, Mali Prime Minister Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga last month denounced the accusations against the Russian mercenaries, describing such Western barbs as “subterfuge intended to deceive and manipulate national and international public opinion for the purpose of destabilizing and isolating Mali.”

His response has gone beyond words: Mali banned the operation of all NGOs with French links, including respected outfits such as Oxfam and Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World).

In an open letter to French President Macron, 35 NGOs protested Bamako’s ban, declaring that their expulsion would cause “the cessation of essential activities that benefit populations in situations of great fragility or poverty.”

Louis-Nicolas Jandeaux, advocacy officer at Oxfam France, complained that “all this development aid is completely sacrificed by a diplomatic failure.”

Human Rights Watch, which was not among the 35 signatories, has nevertheless documented a deterioration of Mali’s “human rights and security” since the current regime came to power. According to them, 35% of the country’s population–more than seven million people–now urgently require aid.

It accuses Malian security forces of engaging in extrajudicial killings and detentions during its counterterrorism operations, particularly focused on ethnic minorities.

But the military government is not the only target of Human Rights Watch’s condemnation. It reports “scores of civilians” killed by Islamist militants. Areas under their control are also subjected to extreme interpretations of Islamic law which allegedly include frequent executions, mutilations, and forced tributes to local warlords.

At any rate, the future of MINUSMA is growing even more doubtful as Germany and Cote d’Ivoire announced in recent weeks that their forces will also pull out, leaving about twenty nations with just over 5,000 troops remaining on the ground.

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