UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus pandemic has compounded the 'dire humanitarian and security situations' in Mali and Africa's Sahel region.
TANZANIA, TANZANIA -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus pandemic has compounded the "dire humanitarian and security situations" in Mali and Africa's Sahel region.
Insurgents remain active and extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali since 2015, stoking animosity and violence between ethnic groups in the region. The anticipated impact of the pandemic led the government to revise its economic forecast for 2020 from 5% growth to just 0.9%, Guterres said, adding that decreasing output, lower remittances from workers abroad and decreasing tax revenue risk putting 800,000 people below the poverty line.
Guterres said the redeployment of Mali's reconstituted army to the country's north "is an important achievement" that wouldn't have been possible without support from the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, known as MINUSMA. The Malian force includes an equal number of regular army soldiers, former rebels and ex-militants who fought in regional self-defence groups.
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