{{The new mission of the UN stabilization in Mali, MINUSMA has been formally established on Monday, July 1, at a ceremony in Bamako. }}
By the end of December, it will consist of some 12,600 peacekeepers tasked with securing the northern part of the country.
In the presence of Hervé Ladsous, boss of Peacekeeping Operations of the UN peace, the MINUSMA took over the Pan-African force, Misma (International Mission Support Mali), which has some 6,000 men also included in the new UN mission, a few weeks before the presidential election scheduled for 28 July.
Under the command of Rwanda’s Gen. Jean Bosco Kazura ({Pictured}) the MINUSMA should be made of 12 600 troops (military and police) by the end of December and will ensure the safety of Mali, especially its vast northern part of the country.
{{French presence}}
In favor of a military coup in Bamako on 22 March 2012, the north of the country and its major cities, Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal were occupied in the following months by jihadists and criminal groups linked to Al-Qaeda who committed numerous atrocities.
Since then, they have largely been driven by the intervention of the French army, which began on January 11 and continues today.
The MINUSMA and the Malian army will still count for a time on the 3200 French military still present in Mali – at the height of the French intervention were 4500.
According to Paris, the French force will gradually decrease to 1000 troops at the end of the year.
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