UN votes to immediately end its peacekeeping operation in Mali

United Nations: The UN Security Council voted unanimously Friday to immediately end a peacekeeping operation in Mali as demanded by the country’s military junta.

Mali, which has grappled with an Islamic insurgency for over a decade, has seen its relations with the international community become strained in part because the current ruling junta has brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group. The Wagner mercenaries also have been engaged in Moscow’s war in Ukraine and were part of a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military last week.

The resolution adopted Friday terminates the mandate of the peacekeeping mission known as MINUSMA as of Friday and orders it to start the cessation of operations

on Saturday, including transferring some tasks and withdrawing its more than 15,000 personnel “with the objective of completing this process by Dec. 31,

2023.”