MALI’S ruling junta said on Sunday that it was expelling the head of the human rights division of Minusma, the UN mission there, giving him 48 hours to leave the country.

A statement from government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said Guillaume Ngefa Atonodok Andali, the head of Minusma’s human rights section, had engaged in “destabilising and subversive actions.”

Mr Andali had taken it upon himself to decide who were the representatives of civil society, ignoring the authorities and national institutions, the statement added.

“Andali’s bias was even more evident during the last review of the United Nations security council on Mali,” the statement added.

The decision comes after Malian rights activist Aminata Cheick Dicko denounced the security situation in the country in a speech to a UN gathering last month, and accused the regime’s new Russian military partners of serious rights violations.

Minusma was set up in 2013 to try to stabilise Mali in the face of the growing threat from jihadist fighters. 

The military regime has repeatedly blocked Minusma’s attempts to investigate growing reports of human rights abuses carried out by the armed forces.