The United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in Mali should be mandated to confront terrorist groups in the country, the West African country’s foreign minister said on Monday.
Abdoulaye Diop urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to mandate the peacekeepers to confront terrorist groups that are threatening a fragile process in the country.
Diop said Malian security forces are on the fore front in the battle against terrorist groups but “cannot by themselves confront this phenomenon.” He urged the Security Council to consider bolstering the operational capacity of the UN mission “to adapt to this security context.”
He declined to offer specifics, but said that Mali fears becoming a convergence point for various terrorist groups, including the Islamic State, which has a presence in Libya and Boko Haram which operates in Nigeria.
Various Islamic extremists groups operate in northern Mali, including al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch. The groups continue to carry out attacks against UN peacekeepers nearly three years after they were pushed out of cities and town in northern Mali by French forces.
