International development minister says Mali’s peacekeeping needs are ‘obvious’

OTTAWA — While many countries have asked Canada for help with peacekeeping, International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Thursday that Mali’s needs are some of the most obvious.

Mali is one of the poorest and most vulnerable and fragile countries on the planet, Bibeau said in an interview with The Canadian Press from the country’s capital, Bamako.

Bibeau will wrap up her first official trip to Africa on Friday, having visited three francophone countries on the continent’s west side: Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso.

All three were once considered oases of stability on a continent rocked with conflict, yet all have suffered recently from terrorist threats they can’t control.

“Unfortunately, (these countries) don’t have sufficient resources to face this threat,” Bibeau said.

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Mali is often cited as one of the countries where Canada could deploy some of the 600 troops Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently said he will make available for UN peacekeeping operations.

Additionally, the federal government announced Wednesday it was sending a “reconnaissance mission” to take a closer look at the UN peacekeeping operations in Mali, known as MINUSMA.

Bibeau cautioned the “technical” mission shouldn’t be seen as a sign Canada is committed to sending peacekeepers to any particular country.

“There are really a large number of countries that unfortunately are on the list of states that have asked us for help through the UN,” she said. But she added “the needs are obvious” regarding Mali.

The current UN mission in Mali is one of the most dangerous in the world, with 105 peacekeepers killed there since 2013.

Bibeau said the Liberal government will announce an overall strategy on international development when it attends la Francophonie, the summit of French-speaking nations, in Madagascar in late November.

Melanie Marquis, The Canadian Press