Top U.N. official in Mali to leave his post amid security challenges

DAKAR (Reuters) - The United Nations' top official in Mali will leave his post after just a year amid difficulties implementing a peace deal and improving SECURITY (SECURITY.C)(SECURITY.8)in the north, sources close to the mission told Reuters.

The 10,000-strong MINUSMA force has suffered the highest rate of losses of any active peacekeeping mission and is the frequent target of attacks by desert jihadists still active two years after French troops drove them out of key northern towns.

In November, militants also attacked a luxury hotel in the capital Bamako and killed 20 people, including many foreigners. Earlier this month, rockets hit a U.N. base in Kidal, killing three people and were fired at the town of Gao.

Tunisia's Mongi Hamdi will be replaced by Chad's former foreign minister and former head of the African Union Mission in Somalia Mahamat Saleh Annadif in January, the sources said.

"His (Hamdi's) departure has been finalised," said one of the sources, requesting anonymity since the new appointment is not yet official. "There were certain expectations of him and it's not clear that he met them," he added.

Special Representative Hamdi did not reply to an emailed request for comment. MINUSMA spokeswoman Radhia Achouri declined to comment.

Officials praised Hamdi's skills in mediation, culminating in the signing of a long-awaited peace agreement between rival northern armed groups and the Malian government in June.

But they said he has since struggled to implement it and improve overall security. MINUSMA does not have an anti-terror mandate, although can fire on militants if it perceives an immediate danger.

"There is a fair element of apprehension about what's next," said a foreign diplomat in the country. Other officials in the country said they hoped that Annadif's experience in Somalia would prove useful in meeting Mali's security challenges.

Nearly 80 percent of Malians said they do not feel "sufficiently safe", according to a survey this year by the German foundation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Jean-Herve Jezequel, senior Sahel analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that any candidate following Hamdi would face the same difficulties of a "vast and sometimes contradictory mandate". But he said new leadership might help.

"A new leader could give energy and help clarify the priorities of the mission. That's an important aspect for the Malian people," he said.

Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda seized the desert north of Mali in 2012 following a separatist uprising but were scattered by a French military operation the following year.

Jihadists have stepped up attacks this year on Western and Malian targets beyond their traditional desert bases.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York and Adama Diarra in Bamako; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Tom Heneghan)

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedinBeloudBluesky