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the united nations secretary general is there and he's called for this international force during that visit. i just wonder, with all of your knowledge of haiti whether you think that that would actually calm things if we think back, for example, to 2010 and we know the tensions that have been there with international peacekeepers, particularly in light of that cholera crisis. do you think that a new force on the ground there would actually help? well, today you have a resurgence of cholera. and you have a situation, as i mentioned, 12 million people, a police force, 9,000, ready, active duty, but in fact only 3,500 are on duty in the country at any given day at one time. this is the figure that the un has put out. but when you think about the fact you have groups — , over 200 armed groups — they�* re doing ransom kidnappings, they're raping, there's a violence that's being carried throughout, and 3,500 police officers
asked the 13,000—strong force to leave the country following years of tensions. the un withdrawal will leave mali's military with only about 1,000 wagner group fighters to help combat militant efforts. 0ur barbara plett usher sent in this report. there have been tensions between the united nations and the military government of mali for years but it really came to a head earlier this month when mali's leaders suddenly ordered the peacekeepers out of the country. they said they had a crisis of confidence with the un force because it wasn't doing enough to stem the violence of the islamist insurgency and because they objected to its human rights reporting. but crucially, marley has increasingly been turning towards russia and its wagner mercenaries for military help, and that is also contributed to the tensions with the west. peacekeepers have in fact played an important role in protecting civilians, also in logistics, they've been flying government
between the united nations and the military government of mali for years but that really came to a head earlier this month when molly's leaders ordered the peacekeepers out of the country. they had a crisis of confidence of the un force because it was not doing enough to stem the violence of the islamist insurgency and because they objected to the human rights reporting. crucially, molly has increasingly torn towards russia and its wagon or group of mercenaries and that is to with the west. they have played a role in protecting civilians also in logistics, they'd been flying government workers to cities in the complex zones and so, their departure will leave quite a large gap and it's not clear if there'll be enough wagner group soldiers especially with the uncertainty about the group after its unsuccessful after its u nsuccessful rebellion after its unsuccessful rebellion attempt against the kremlin. some experts are worried that the security situation will worsen and not only to stew molly but also the
but rapes. we're seeing torture. we're seeing looting and destroying of villages. so it's really, i think, a worst-case scenario for this region right now. >> a worst-case scenario. and what is even more terrifying is that nothing seems to deter these militias in that particular province. they seem battle hardened, almost, unbothered by these atrocities that that you have described. what kind of international response is needed to protect civilians in the darfur region? >> great question. i think one of the things that we can look to is how do we respond a decade ago when we were experiencing genocide in darfur? clearly, it's not enough to make statements. the state department and others have issued multiple statements over the course of the last week condemning these killings, but that doesn't go nearly far enough. i think it's early to suggest peacekeepers could possibly deploy, but clearly some more robust effort beyond statements is required if we want to bring
for mr kurti equally clear. does it really matter beyond the two men's hostility towards each other? how disturbing is that for the balkans generally? when there's an actual war going on in ukraine, you do not want a frozen conflict flaring up in the western balkans. that's a distraction that the united states and the european union simply don't need at this time. now, the presence of the nato peacekeepers in kosovo to a great extent keeps everyone honest. in fact, the commander of kfor said that if kfor hadn't been there, there might be actual conflict now. so it's doing itsjob. it's making sure that, for example, serbia doesn't feel like it can send troops into north kosovo to defend ethnic serbs. you are stuck to a degree in the 1990s, like the rhetoric of these two politicians. you can't move forward. you can't move forward towards european union membership. you can't move forward in kosovo�*s case to wider
against the result. guy de launay is the bbc�*s balkans correspondent and he spoke to me from the peace and calm of a square in ljubljana, in slovenia. anybody who was cautious about raising tensions in north kosovo would be moving very carefully in terms of having those mayors take office. but albin kurti, the prime minister of kosovo, you couldn't really define him in those terms. and he set about ensuring that those mayors were inaugurated and notjust that, but they would physically take office in these four towns in north kosovo. and that was achieved with force, with armed units of kosovo special police and then kfor peacekeepers from nato were involved. they wanted to prevent conflicts between the two sides, but they ended up being drawn in as well and it got quite nasty. a lot of it is a kind of personality clash, isn't it?
the ethnic, religious and political cauldron of the balkans has only really been entirely peaceful for four decades out of the past few centuries. from marshal tito�*s yugoslavia, where today... and that was when president tito kept a firm hand on yugoslavia and enver hoxha turned albania into a ferocious isolationist society. since they disappeared, the vicious infighting has returned. trouble boiled up the other week in kosovo, where the elected prime minister doesn't even want his small statelet to exist. 30 nato peacekeepers were injured. the trouble occurred in north kosovo, which is mostly ethnically serbian. an election boycott by the serbs meant that several ethnic albanian mayors were voted in on very small turnouts, and the serbs staged violent demonstrations