Former Dutch minister Koenders to head UN Mali mission

Former Dutch government minister Bert Koenders, pictured on December 9, 2011. By Sia Kambou (AFP/File)

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Friday named former Dutch government minister Bert Koenders as head of the key UN mission in Mali where French and African troops are battling Islamist militants.

Koenders will head UN efforts to help Mali's interim government to re-establish control over the African state where Islamist extremists took over the north of the country for 10 months until France intervened in January.

"He has a key role in the perspective of rallying the different parties in the process. It is not an easy task, but it is imperative," Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said in welcoming the appointment.

The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) peacekeeping force is aiming to take over from French and African forces in July.

Koenders was Dutch minister for development cooperation from 2007 to 2010. He has been the head of the UN mission in Ivory Coast, UNOCI, since October 2011.

Former Niger foreign minister Aichatou Mindaoudou Souleymane will take over as head of UNOCI, the UN said. Mindaoudou was deputy and head of the UN-African Union force in Darfur from 2011 until March this year.

Ban also named Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz of Brazil as force commander of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

Santos Cruz takes over as a special offensive intervention brigade starts a mission to counter armed groups in eastern DR Congo in a first for UN peacekeeping.