After his official appointment on April 11, the new commander of the MINUSMA Force, Major General Jean-Paul Deconinck, traveled to Gao on Thursday, one of the stages of his contact tour with the Sectors where the UN Force is deployed.
“It is not by reading in Bamako, some documents that we can live the situation and feel it, especially the security situation and also feel the population. (…). My mission is to reinforce security to make the Malian people live better”, he told Sahelien.com.
On the spot, the new commander met with other actors involved in securing the region, such as the Operational Coordination Mechanism (MOC) battalion.
“We have every interest that the MOC battalion works very well and be professional very quickly. But we are also counting on cooperation with other actors of the Barkhane type for example and then in the future the G5 Sahel once it is operationalized”, added General Deconinck.
Deployed since July 2013, the United Nations Mission in Mali has more than 10,000 military personnel and 1,200 police officers.