Facts

• The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) will reportedly resume its contingent rotation from Mon. "without exception," according to Malian and MINUSMA officials on Saturday.^[1]
• A MINUSMA spokesperson said Bamako and MINUSMA had agreed on a streamlined rotation process to coordinate troop deployments, and the mission's request to resume rotations for the roughly 12K-strong mission had been accepted.^[2]
• The announcement comes one month after Bamako suspended rotations for MINUSMA following the arrest of 49 soldiers from the Ivory Coast who it said entered Mali without permission. Meanwhile, the UN mission is said to have acknowledged "dysfunctions" in deploying the Ivorian troops^[3]
• This comes as, on Fri., the German government said it was suspending its military reconnaissance and transport missions for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali after Bamako reportedly denied flight clearance for a planned rotation of personnel.^[4]
• Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, however, denied the accusations and reportedly called on Germany to comply with the new mechanism for authorizing troop rotations.^[5]
• The latest developments come amid rising tensions between Mali's transitional military government, which came to power in an August 2020 coup, and Western powers that have condemned election delays and the alleged security cooperation between Bamako and the Kremlin-linked private military company Wagner Group.^[6]