United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked the UN Security Council to increase the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) amid the growing insecurity and terrorist threat in the country.
“Considering the increasingly complex challenges MINUSMA is facing, the growing level of insecurity and physical violence against the civilian population in central Mali and the expanding terrorist threat more broadly, scaling up MINUSMA’s uniformed personnel capacity would enhance the ability of the Mission to protect civilians in central Mali and create further space for the peace process in the North,” Guterres said in a report to the Security Council.
The UN chief proposed to deploy an additional 2,069 uniformed personnel, comprised of 1,730 military troops, 300 formed police unit personnel and 39 individual police officers. The deployment, if authorized by the Security Council, would bring the number of the mission’s military personnel to 17,278.