Mali - As UN Peacekeeping Withdraws What Will Happen to the Local Staff and Contractors Left Behind?
The U.N. mission will continue to pay its Malian staff members until the end of the year, when it has pledged to leave, according to Fatoumata Kaba, a spokesperson for MINUSMA. However, others who work on limited U.N. contracts, as well as shopkeepers and restaurants that serve the mission, can expect to lose that source of income.
The loss will be especially acute in northern conflict-riddled regions like Kidal, Timbuktu, Menaka, and Gao, where U.N. bases employed hundreds of Malian contractors to cook meals, do maintenance work, and to build landing strips and living quarters.
“In large parts of northern Mali, there’s often not many economic opportunities, so … contracts in support of the mission actually go a long way,” Arthur Boutellis, a senior adviser at the International Peace Institute, an independent think tank based in New York, said.
According to the World Bank, an additional 375,000 Malians fell into extreme poverty between 2019 and 2021, in part due to stagnating wages and rising inflation. Nearly half of the country’s 22.5 million people live below the national poverty line. The problem is worse in rural areas, where subsistence farming —many peoples’ only real option for making money — is threatened by armed conflict and climate change.
But the U.N. mission’s withdrawal also will be felt in major cities like Bamako.
Bocar Coulibaly, 49, used to sell scrap metal he rummaged in the street. Now, he runs a shop outside the peacekeeping mission’s headquarters where he earns 30% more selling water, tea, cigarettes, and electrical equipment to foreign soldiers and U.N. employees.
“I have a feeling of fear after the departure of the MINUSMA,” he said.
Mali’s national employment agency has asked local contractors working for the U.N. mission to register with the government to aid “the development of national strategies to mitigate the effects of job losses,” agency Director General Ibrahim Ag Nock said.
It is not yet clear what assistance, if any, former U.N. contractors will receive, though people who benefited informally from the U.N. mission, like shop and restaurant owners with businesses near peacekeeper bases, were not asked to register.
The loss will be especially acute in northern conflict-riddled regions like Kidal, Timbuktu, Menaka, and Gao, where U.N. bases employed hundreds of Malian contractors to cook meals, do maintenance work, and to build landing strips and living quarters.
“In large parts of northern Mali, there’s often not many economic opportunities, so … contracts in support of the mission actually go a long way,” Arthur Boutellis, a senior adviser at the International Peace Institute, an independent think tank based in New York, said.
According to the World Bank, an additional 375,000 Malians fell into extreme poverty between 2019 and 2021, in part due to stagnating wages and rising inflation. Nearly half of the country’s 22.5 million people live below the national poverty line. The problem is worse in rural areas, where subsistence farming —many peoples’ only real option for making money — is threatened by armed conflict and climate change.
But the U.N. mission’s withdrawal also will be felt in major cities like Bamako.
Bocar Coulibaly, 49, used to sell scrap metal he rummaged in the street. Now, he runs a shop outside the peacekeeping mission’s headquarters where he earns 30% more selling water, tea, cigarettes, and electrical equipment to foreign soldiers and U.N. employees.
“I have a feeling of fear after the departure of the MINUSMA,” he said.
Mali’s national employment agency has asked local contractors working for the U.N. mission to register with the government to aid “the development of national strategies to mitigate the effects of job losses,” agency Director General Ibrahim Ag Nock said.
It is not yet clear what assistance, if any, former U.N. contractors will receive, though people who benefited informally from the U.N. mission, like shop and restaurant owners with businesses near peacekeeper bases, were not asked to register.
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