The order brought to an end 10 years of efforts to try to stabilise the country plagued by jihadism and a range of other crises.
The Malian military rulers have ordered the United Nations (UN) peacekeepers out of the country, proclaiming the "failure" of their mission and denouncing its alleged "instrumentalisation" of the human rights issue.
The order brought to an end 10 years of efforts to try to stabilise the country plagued by jihadism and a range of other crises.
The AFP reports that the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), whose strength has hovered around 15,000 soldiers and police officers, has seen 180 of its members killed.
The latest update from the force, issued on Friday reportedly stated that 5,817 MINUSMA staff had left the force as of this week.
The original plan was for the peacekeeping force to have withdrawn from the West African nation by the end of the year, but already the UN troops have been leaving their compounds one after another, with the first withdrawals as early as July.
The MINUSMA withdrawal has exacerbated rivalries between armed groups present in the north of the country and the Malian state.
It was reported that the groups do not want the UN camps handed back to the Malian army, saying such a move would contravene ceasefire and peace deals struck with Bamako in 2014 and 2015.
However the army is pushing to take back control of the evacuated camps but the predominantly Tuareg separatist groups who oppose the army have resumed hostilities against it.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has also stepped up attacks against the military.
That therefore means that MINUSMA's pull-out is all the more perilous, taking place against the background of this renewal of hostilities – and on what are perceived to be restrictions imposed by the authorities on its ability to manoeuvre.
According to the AFP report, after vacating five camps since August this year, MINUSMA completed its "accelerated withdrawal" from Tessalit, in the Northern Kidal region on Sunday.
MINUSMA said it did so in an "extremely tense and degraded" security context that "endangered the lives of its personnel".
In the days running up to the pull-out, shots were fired at its cargo aircraft and at its positions.
Part of the contingent, mainly Chadian, left by plane.
But the rest were forced to travel overland to Gao, through more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) of desert, under constant threat from armed groups.
The withdrawal from Aguelhok the following day happened under similar conditions, and the authorities did not give clearance for flights.
MINUSMA noted that the withdrawing convoys were attacked by explosive devices, resulting in injuries. The GSIM claimed responsibility.
Meanwhile, Malian government spokesman, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, has accused former ally France, which has also been pushed out of the country, of sparing "no effort to make MINUSMA flee".
By speeding up its withdrawal, the UN peacekeeping force is upsetting the plans of the Malian army, which does not want to let the separatists fill the vacuum.
A specialist in Africa and defence matters at the Paris-based Institut Montaigne, Jonathan Guiffard, said that "The junta has taken the decision to kick out MINUSMA, but they are having the pace of the withdrawal imposed on them."
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