The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, called for enhanced support for those recently displaced in Mali, where continued violence and threats by armed groups have forced local Malians and refugees to flee for safety.
“Since the departure of Barkhane and the European troops there is a vacuum created by this departure”, said Mohamed Toure, UNHCR’s Mali representative when speaking at a press briefing today at the United Nations in Geneva. “In this vacuum right now, we don’t have any state authorities in that region, so it is really left in the hands of armed groups, terrorist armed groups, that are really spreading terror, spreading killings, spreading rapes, creating misery”.
Operation Barkhane was an anti-insurgent operation that started on 1 August 2014 and formally ended on 9 November 2022. It was led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region.
The operation was led in co-operation with five countries that span the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. France began withdrawing its troops from Mali on 17 February 2022.
According to UNCHR’s Mohamed Toure, ”we are just noticing people who are coming in masses in this region, including refugees who have been displaced for quite a long number of years, of time, in those regions. Those are the same refugees coming out again in the different regions”.
Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal are some of the towns to which the refugees are currently fleeing to seek for security. UNHCR and its partners are supporting local authorities in responding to the needs of forcibly displaced families and providing them with emergency shelter, education, food and water supply and cash assistance aimed at economic empowerment.
”We are talking about almost half a million people who are in need of assistance in terms of displacement”, said UNHCR’s Mali representative. “Of course, beyond that, in Mali we have almost 3 million people who are in need of humanitarian assistance and only 38% of the assistance requested was gathered last year in order to secure assistance of protection to IDP’s and refugees”.
As of 31 December 2022, so UNHCR, Mali hosted more than 60.000 refugees, including 25,000 from Burkina Faso. Meanwhile, some 440,000 Malians remain internally displace due to continued violence and threats from armed groups coming from different backgrounds.
”We have often times testimonies from refugees, or testimonies from IDP’s noting that they have been in touch, or they have seen on the scene those groups that can be conceived as not Malian troops, but as foreign troops involved in those conflicts.
As the needs of the displaced remain enormous, UNHCR is appealing to the international community to show greater solidarity for the displaced in Mali and in neighboring countries to be able to continue to deliver life-saving assistance.
”Unfortunately”, so Mr. Toure, “this kind of Mali fatigue, if I can call it that way, and we are really seeing that kind of diminishing drastically of the assistance provided to IDP’s and refugees”.
-ends-
- Wide shot, UN Geneva flag alley.
- Medium shot, press room with journalists and panel of speakers
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Mohamed Toure, UNHCR’s Mali representative: “Since the departure of Barkhane and the European troops there is a vacuum created by this departure. In this vacuum right now, we don’t have any state authorities in that region so it really left in the hands of armed groups, terrorist armed groups that are really spreading terror, spreading killings, spreading rapes, creating misery”.
- Medium shot, journalists listening
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Mohamed Toure, UNHCR’s Mali representative:” Right now we are just noticing people who are coming in masses in this region, including refugees who have been displaced for quite a long numbers of years, of time, in those regions. Those are the same refugees coming out again in the different regions”.
- Medium shot, journalists typing in front of screen with speaker
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Mohamed Toure, UNHCR’s Mali representative:” We are talking about almost half a million people who are in need of assistance in terms of displacement. Of course, beyond that, in Mali we have almost 3 million people who are in need of humanitarian assistance and only 38% of the assistance requested was gathered last year in order to secure assistance of protection to IDP’s and refugees”.
- Medium shot, journalists with spokespersons on podium and camerawoman
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Mohamed Toure, UNHCR’s Mali representative:” We have often times testimonies from refugees, or testimonies from IDP’s noting that they have been in touch, or they have seen on the scene those groups that can be conceived as not Malian troops, but as foreign troops involved in those conflicts.
- Wide shot, spokespeople on podium
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Mohamed Toure, UNHCR’s Mali representative:” Unfortunately this kind of Mali fatigue, if I can call it that way, and we are really seeing that kind of diminishing drastically of the assistance provided to IDP’s and refugees”.
- Close-up, journalists listening.
- Close-up, speakers on screens
- Medium shot, journalists in press room
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.