The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali has a new mandate. Weeks of negotiations between members of the UN Security Council concluded on June 29 with a reauthorization of the Mission. The renewal of MINUSMA’s mandate follows a series of tumultuous developments in Mali during the past six months. On the military front, France withdrew its longstanding…
As the war in Ukraine drags on, we continue to witness abuses against civilians and entire cities being razed to the ground. Elsewhere too, civilians are being slaughtered and starved with complete impunity such as in northern Ethiopia,or killed during security operations in Mali.Today, one-quarter of the world’s population lives in a conflict zone as…
By Daniel Levine-Spound On November 30, 2021, the Congolese army (FARDC) and the Ugandan military (UPDF) launched joint operations in the Beni territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group that originated in Uganda but has operated in eastern Congo since the mid-nineties and is responsible for…
By Lauren Spink The United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan — known by its acronym UNMISS — has perhaps been most known for providing security to civilians inside protection of civilians (POC) sites in and around its bases. In October 2020, UNMISS began the process of re-designating the POC sites into camps for internally…
By Daniel Levine-Spound and Samuli Harju The UN Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the world body’s peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo during discussions later this month in New York. But as the mission – known by its French acronym MONUSCO – makes plans to draw down and eventually…
By Viola Giuliano and Josh Jorgensen The United Nations Security Council in the coming weeks will be negotiating a new mandate for the peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) – known by its acronym MINUSCA. Since the Security Council adopted the Mission’s current mandate last November, a new armed rebellion has plunged the country into…
By Annie Shiel, Jordan Street, and Abigail Watson As attention across the world remained fixed on the Afghanistan withdrawal and the runup to the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Biden administration quietly delivered one of the first public insights into its developing counterterrorism policy. In a speech at the Atlantic Council on Sept.…
By Seán Smith The United Nations secretary-general is expected to deliver a report to the Security Council today that will make recommendations for or against the deployment of additional peacekeepers to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The report, which should be made public within weeks, is the result of a compromise struck towards…
After weeks of remote negotiations, on 29 June, the UN Security Council agreed upon MINUSMA’s mandate for the next 12 months. Last year the Security Council made a significant change to the mandate, by adding a second strategic priority that instructed the Mission to help the Malian authorities protect civilians and reduce intercommunal violence in…