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UN Ends Peacekeeping Mission in Mali With Wagner Group Set to Fill Void

  • Transition period of six months to end in January 2024
  • Mali and the Sahel region faced with continued security threat
A United Nations soldier in Gao, Mali. 

A United Nations soldier in Gao, Mali. 

Photographer: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images

The UN Security Council voted to end a 13,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Mali, leaving the poorly equipped army and a smaller force of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries to contend with militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

The council voted unanimously in favor of a French-sponsored resolution to end the mission by January 2024 after Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop demanded the peacekeepers leave. He said the peacekeepers had failed and Malians no longer trusted them.