The UN is undertaking an unprecedented 6-month withdrawal of nearly 13,000 peacekeepers from Mali

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is in the throes of what Secretary-General António Guterres calls an “unprecedented” six-month exit from Mali on orders of the West African nation’s military junta, which has brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help fight an Islamic insurgency. The U.N. special envoy for Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, laid out the scale of the operation to the U.N. Security Council on Monday: All 12,947 U.N. peacekeepers and police must sent home, their 12 camps and one temporary base handed over to the government, and 1,786 civilian staff terminated by Dec. 31. Mali’s U.N. Ambassador Issa Konfourou said the government is cooperating with the U.N. peacekeeping mission but it will not extend the deadline.