Norway is joining 15 people in the Minusma UN peacekeeping force in Mali, and they are closely monitoring the situation after the military coup in the country.
“We received a new report from the Norwegians now in the morning, and they are doing well,” Major Brynjar Stordal at the Norwegian Armed Forces Operations Headquarters (FOH) told NTB.
“The situation in Mali is tense and they are following closely what is happening, but no incidents against UN personnel have been informed,” he said.
“The coup is an internal matter, and the perpetrators of the coup do not see the UN as a counterpart,” according to Stordal.
Six Norwegian personnel officers are affiliated with Minusma’s headquarters in Bamako, and nine Norwegian specialists and officers operate the Camp Bifrost military camp near the capital.
“This is a major UN operation and there are no plans to remove Norwegians from Mali,” says Stordal.
Established in 2013, Minusma consists of about 12,000 soldiers and almost 2,000 policemen and other civilian employees from more than 50 countries.
The insurgency was initially established to defeat the Tuareg rebellion that followed the military coup in 2012.
Mali is considered the most dangerous UN peacekeeping operation, and 209 members of the Minusma force have been killed over the years.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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