The authorities in Bamako have given their agreement to the Security Council and the Chadian authorities, and this announcement comes at a time when the reorganization of the French military presence in Mali is underway.
The Chadian contingent should almost double under the UN mandate. The Malian ambassador to the UN has given the Security Council the green light. But the military government in power in Bamako is anxious to specify that this reinforcement comes “within a bilateral framework and at the request of the government of the Republic of Chad”, “to face the threats and protect its troops […] in northern Mali, following the reconfiguration of the Barkhane force”, the French force in the Sahel, which has withdrawn 450 soldiers from northern Mali.
On the Chadian side, the Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed that 1,000 soldiers would soon be sent to Mali. But he stressed that neither the timetable nor the area of deployment had been specified and that these details would be defined in agreement with the United Nations.