Mali: when has the UN succeeded?

“I think we stand a good chance of helping Mali to restore order and regain control over the whole of their territory”.
“The whole of the news on the mission is geared towards the military part of it. That is a shame. It’s not about the military part. We are just a catalyst for the civilian and police mission. That’s what it’s about. We should concentrate on that!”.

Colonel Joost de Wolf has been working in the Netherlands Marine Corps for 30 years. On Thursday 17 April he was sent to Mali as Deputy Chief of Staff of Operations of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). In this interview, he describes when MINUSMA has succeeded, and how long he estimates that it will take the mission to achieve that goal.

On 10 April 2014, Colonel Joost de Wolf was interviewed by Bruno Braak at the Dutch Ministry of Defense on the Malian conflict, MINUSMA’s goals, and the Dutch contribution.

For more information on MINUSMA please refer to: www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minusma/.