Mali suspends UN mission military rotations

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) - The Malian government decided Thursday to suspend all military and police contingent rotations of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

The rotations, scheduled or announced, are also affected by the suspension pending the holding of "a coordination meeting between the Malian structures concerned and MINUSMA," according to a statement from the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

It cited "reasons linked to the national security context" for the suspension and said Mali would work diligently to create conditions for lifting the suspension.

The decision was made four days after the July 10 arrest of 49 Ivorian soldiers "with their weapons and war minutiae as well as other military equipment" at the international airport of President Modibo Keita Senou, in Bamako, the Malian capital.

They are mercenaries, whose "fateful intention" was to "break the momentum of the Refoundation and the securing of Mali, as well as the return to constitutional order," said authorities.

The Ivorian government said Tuesday that the soldiers were present on Malian soil in the 8th rotation as part of operations from national support elements linked to the UN mission.

It called on Mali to release "without delay, the unjustly arrested soldiers."

None of the soldiers had weapons and ammunition of war when they got off the plane but the weapons of the contingent authorized by the United Nations were on a second plane, according to Executive Secretary of the Ivorian National Security Council, Fideme Sarasso.

But according to the Malian government, which cites an interview with MINUSMA, no rotation had been planned on the day of their arrest.