The director of the UN peacekeeping mission’s human rights section has been given 48 hours by Mali’s military government to leave the nation.
A government spokesman claimed Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali had chosen “subversive actions” in his choice of witnesses to present at UN Security Council briefings on Mali. The statement was read aloud on national television.
A Malian civil society member who testified at a UN hearing last month accused the Russian military allies of the government of significant human rights breaches.
On Monday, Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, is scheduled to visit Mali to strengthen relations in the areas of security and defence.
A Russian foreign minister will be making his or her first official trip to the country of West Africa.