Completion of mission for an essential character from Bamako. After five years in Mali, Chadian Mahamat Saleh is leaving Annadif, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Mali. At the end of one last field visit he has just made in northern Mali, our correspondent went to Mali to meet him to take stock of his mission.
as reported from Bamako, Serge Daniel
When in tight costume, he walks at the pace of a senator, while once draped in one of his famous white boubous, bearing the signature of his Yemeni couturier, he resembles a Sahelian. Originally from Chad, Mahamat Saleh Annadif says at the end of his stay in Mali: “There is regret. Democratic elections, political crisis, coups, reconciliation, insurgency … These circles, it’s time to get out of Mali. ”
But paradoxically, he believes, like several other voices, that the coup-driven Malian soldiers are playing the game better than the late regime in the application of the Algiers peace agreement. “I just said that there is a new dynamic that is starting to take shape.”
Another reason for the satisfaction of the one considered by some to be the most informed man in Bamako: the national flag symbolically mounted in Kidal, a northern Malian town but still under the control of the previous uprising. He adds: “Minusma’s mandate is becoming more and more understood, more and more accepted. For me, this is something extremely important, and I believe that the Security Council will also issue mandates that adapt to the context. “I travel with Mali in my heart,” he concludes.
Mahamat Saleh Annadif delivers his suitcases to Senegal, where he is appointed representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa. His successor is El-Ghassim Wane, a diplomat of Mauritanian nationality.
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