Face of Nation : Canada plans to fulfil its commitment to send 20 police officers to support the peacekeeping mission in Mali by the end of the year, according to the commanding RCMP officer in the West African country.
The RCMP promised to send 20 officers last summer. At the moment, 10 are deployed as part of the UN mission that’s trying to bring stability to Mali amid an ethnic and jihadist insurgency.
“By the end of this year our goal is to have 20 police officers in Mali,” RCMP Supt. Kelly Bradshaw, who is in charge of all Canadian police officers in Mali, said from Bamako, the capital, on Friday. Countries around the world are sending a total of some 1,700 officers. “I didn’t think that many people would be interested in [joining] and I actually spoke to a lot of people who are very interested in coming to Mali or Africa.”
Bradshaw, who went over in April, said a full deployment means she’ll be able to fan more officers across the country and follow Malian security forces as they approach the dangerous central and northern parts of the country.
“Our main goal right now is to get people out into the regions where the, you know, the real capacity-building needs to happen,” she said in an interview to mark National Peacekeeper’s Day.
“We’re really just getting established in this mission, gaining a good reputation of being professional and safe and taking things to a higher standard,” she said. “We’ll be able to have a lot more influence as things move forward and as we gain those positions of more leadership roles.”
Sgt. Stevens Hamelin, originally with the Montreal city police, has been in the country for six months, with another six to go. He’s the only one of the 10 Canadian officers already in Mali who’s not with the RCMP. He’s working with the European Union’s civilian capacity-building mission, to train Malian police.
“They start from scratch and they have nothing. Lack of equipment, lack of staff,” he said. “We’re trying to change mentalities and they were skeptical about it but now they are starting to understand what we mean.”
“It makes me think of the fact that people are willing to leave their families,” she said. “I’m hoping that I do have an impact while I’m here. Having been here now I realize how much this country does need international help to gain that security and stability again.” Depleting numbers were flagged to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in a briefing note released last month under access to information laws.
