Nigeria has not informed us of plan to withdraw troops from Mali mission – UN

The United Nations says it has yet to receive an official notification from the Nigerian Government over the country’s plan to withdraw its troops from the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali.
“We are only aware of the development through media reports, but we
have not been formally notified by Nigeria about the troops
withdrawal,” the Spokesman of the UN Department of Peacekeeping
Operations and Field Support, Andre-Michel Essoungou, said on Friday.
Essoungou, however, confirmed that Nigeria has officially notified the department of its intention to withdraw some of its troops (up to two battalions) from the UN/AU Mission in Darfur.
He also said the department was in contact with a number of Troop
Contributing Countries to replace the troops being withdrawn from the
mission in Sudan’s Darfur region.
“The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations is obviously very
appreciative of Nigeria’s continued support to UN peacekeeping
missions and we thank the government and people of Nigeria for the
sacrifices to peace efforts worldwide,” Essoungou noted.
Nigeria is the fourth largest troop contributing country to UN
peacekeeping operations.
PANA on Wednesday broke the story of Nigeria’s plan to withdraw its
troops from MINUSMA because the country felt slighted by the fact that no Nigerian was considered for any of the key posts in the mission, including the Force Commander, Deputy Force Commander and Head of Mission.
On Thursday, ECOWAS Chairman and Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara.
confirmed that Nigeria has officially communicated the decision to
pull out its troops to the regional bloc.
In February, Nigeria deployed a total of 1,200 troops to the
African-led Support Mission in Mali, which is the precursor of
MINUSMA.
AFISMA transformed into MINUSMA on July 1.
PANA/NAN.