Canadian troops arrive in Mali to boost UN peacekeeping mission

MONTREAL: A small advance team of Canadian troops arrived in Mali on Sunday to take part in the peacekeeping mission, considered the UN´s deadliest.

The group will be followed in the coming weeks by the rest of the Canadian contingent.

The first deployment consists of "the theater activation team, whose job is to assist with logistics and coordinate transport and equipment," said a spokesman for Canada´s defense ministry, adding that the mission "is planned from August 2018 to July 2019."

In March, Ottawa announced its decision to deploy for a year an air support force including two Chinook helicopters for medical evacuations and transportation, as well as four Griffon armed helicopters and a contingent of about 250 soldiers.

The first group was accompanied by the Canadian chief of the defense staff, General Jonathan Vance, who held talks in the capital Bamako, Canadian media reported.

The 15,000-strong MINUSMA force has lost 104 peacekeepers since it began in 2013, including nine killed so far this year, despite a peace deal signed by the government and armed groups in June 2015 to end the fighting.

Insurgents remain active, including in the central part of the African country.

Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert in northern Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.