Mali: Canada agrees with helicopters and peacekeepers to the Minusma

News 19 March, 2018

Matthew Usherwood/QMI AGENCY
The canadian minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan.

AFP

Monday, march 19, 2018 11:08

UPDATE
Monday, march 19, 2018 11:10

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OTTAWA | Canada will deploy a force to support the air with helicopters and blue Helmets in the framework of the mission of united Nations stabilization in Mali (Minusma), announced on Monday by the canadian minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan.

“The air task force will include Chinook helicopters to ensure a capability of urgent logistics and transportation for the Minusma, and the Griffon helicopters to provide escort and protection armies,” said the minister.

In support of these helicopters on the ground, members of the canadian military will be deployed with the objective of having a quota to parity between men and women.

The date of the deployment will be determined after consultations with the united nations, said Mr. Sajjan during a press conference in Ottawa with asked by chrystia Freeland, minister of foreign Affairs.

Canada had expressed in November his will to mobilize 200 soldiers to missions from peacekeeping and promoting the presence of women among the peacekeepers.

“One of our priorities is to increase the participation of women” in the operations of peacekeeping, said asked by chrystia Freeland who pilot the project with the foreign partners.

“We want to ensure that our contribution will have a tangible impact on the ground,” she added.

Created in 2013, the Minusma account about 12,000 peacekeepers. More than 150 peacekeepers have been killed in the operations in Mali, which is currently the mission of peacekeeping UN the most dangerous in the world.

The deployment to Mali will be the first peace mission of the canadian armed Forces in Africa since the one who had an abortion at the time of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
Since coming to power in the fall of 2015, the Prime minister Justin Trudeau’s objective is to have a seat on the security Council of the united nations in 2021.