In response to the primary Senegalese opponent and announced presidential candidate, the Senegalese army, one of the major providers of soldiers and police to the UN force in neighboring Mali, has pledged that it will maintain its level of engagement in the Minusma.
This week, the Senegalese battalion stationed in Sévaré (central Mali) started its rotation, according to a Minusma post on social media.
When Ousmane Sonko declared his candidacy for president of Senegal in the 2024 election on Thursday, he used Mali as a platform to criticize President Macky Sall and France. Colonel Assimi Gota, the leader of the Malian junta, also received his unwavering backing.
“We saw that Macky Sall repatriated the few Senegalese elements who were there because they were not there as Senegalese, they were there because France had asked him to bring troops,” Sonko said.
If he is elected, “we will send troops to support our Malian brothers and put an end to this gangrene,” Sonko added, referring to the jihadist spread that has plagued Mali since 2012, which has spread to its neighbours in Burkina Faso and Niger and is worrying the entire sub-region.
Senegal has in fact proceeded, like others, to a “periodic rotation”, wrote the staff in a statement issued on Thursday night to Friday.
Senegal “has not withdrew from Mali, contrary to some information supplied in the press,” the statement read. Senegal “engaged” troops “from the first hours of the crisis,” and this week’s rotation is “a standard operation to replace, the number for number, the troops engaged,” he said.
He claimed that Senegal had 1,300 soldiers, gendarmes, and police officers operating in the Minusma. About 17,500 men and women make up the Minusma, including more than 13,000 troops and police.
Furthermore, Ousmane Sonko claimed that he had “encouraged President Assimi Gota since he has not lost face.”
Through two coups in 2020 and 2021, Colonel Gota seized and solidified his authority with the stated goal of reversing the course of the nation and reestablishing security. Mali has shifted its allegiance from France and its previous friends to Russia under his leadership.
