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Egypt will "temporarily suspend" its involvement in Mali's United Nations peacekeeping operations after seven of its troops died this year in attacks, the UN mission MINUSMA said on Friday.    

In a statement, the mission said that this week Egypt showed its concerns at UN headquarters in New York.

"We have been informed that, in consequence, the Egyptian contingent would temporarily suspend its activities in MINUSMA from August 15," said the statement, without giving details on how long the suspension would be.

Mali to halt all new UN peacekeeping rotations

Mali said Thursday that for "national security" reasons, rotations of the UN's peacekeeping mission will be suspended, in the most recent complication in relations between the ruling junta and international partners.

Rotations of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) mission are being suspended, including those already scheduled, the foreign ministry in Bamako said.

In a statement, the ministry added that the suspension will last until a meeting is held to "facilitate the coordination and regulation" of the rotation of contingents. 

The announcement did not clarify the reasons for the move that came four days after Mali arrested 49 Ivorian soldiers it described as "mercenaries" having the intention to overthrow the country's military-led government.  

The soldiers are National Support Elements (NSE), a UN procedure allowing peacekeeping contingents to use outside contractors for logistical duties. They were arrested after arriving at Bamako airport aboard a special flight, and they comprised the eighth rotation under this scheme, according to Ivory Coast.

Yesterday's statement by Mali did not refer to their arrest or give a date for talks to discuss MINUSMA rotations, but it assured the UN mission that Mali would "work diligently to create conditions conducive to the lifting of this suspension of rotation, which is an essential step in enabling the deployed contingents to ensure the proper implementation of MINUSMA's mandate."

MINUSMA has been in Mali since 2013 after the Sahel region plunged into chaos after Al Qaeda-linked extremists seized northern Mali in 2012.

Since its inception, MINUSMA has reported over 275 fatalities, one of the highest among all UN peacekeeping missions

Of these attacks, 177 deaths were the result of hostile acts, the latest of which was against the Egyptian contingent on July 5, when two peacekeepers died and five were critically injured near Gao, in northern Mali.  

A UN official in Bamako said Egypt contributed 1,035 out of 12,261 UN peacekeeping troops in Mali.    

"It is one of the mission's biggest contingents," he said.