BLUF
On 27 July 2022, United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix visited with and praised the UN peacekeepers from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) who were stationed in the Republic of Mali (Mali). Since August 2021, the PRC has deployed 413 peacekeepers to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), a landlocked West African nation that has experienced two military coups in the past two years—the first in August 2020 and the second in May 2021.
ANALYSIS
OSIRIS has been able to confirm the under-secretary-general’s presence in West Africa at the time of his reported visit to Mali; however, only pro-PRC sources that we have obtained frame his visit as praising the Chinese peacekeepers without providing direct quotes (suggesting that his level of praise may be overstated). However, the UN has praised recent Chinese peacekeeping operations in Africa. While the PRC may have multifarious purposes in participating in MINUSMA, the Chinese Communist Party may seek to utilize its peacekeeping presence in Mali (and elsewhere in Africa) to help depict the Chinese government as a force for good on the global stage. We anticipate PRC-UN peacekeeping activity in Africa to steadily increase over the coming years.
HASHTAGS
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